Through the Silent Maelstrom
by Oparu
Summary: Sequel to Light My Way Home. Henry's been saved from Neverland, Emma broke the curse, Regina discovered the power of true love and Snow White is queen. Emma and Regina are to be married, and soon Regina's pregnancy won't be a secret. Emma must learn to rule wisely with the formerly evil queen at her side, their son still trapped as a merman and darkness lurking below. Swan Queen.
1. one

_Notes: Sequel to Light My Way Home, set a few weeks afterwards._

**_Warning: non-graphic discussion of past rape._**

The sea stretched before her like a mirror, still and smooth. Magic held it flat so that the reflections of all those watching her came from the sea. This was King Triton's magic, his gift to them. She stood on the sand beside Emma, her feet wrapped in soft leather boots. She'd worn white for the last wedding and even with Emma at her side, she couldn't face it again.

Regina wore pale blue as she'd been fond of, long ago, and Emma wore red and gold, as her father had once, in a lifetime past. She looked regal, though she'd loathe admitting it. Emma was the heir, and she was the one the kingdom had turned out to see.

Staring at Snow, Regina remembered striding into her wedding almost as a dream. Her terrible anger was quiet now. Daniel had told her to love again and somehow she had, not only Henry (who'd been so easy to love when he'd arrived as a baby), but Emma. She'd never thought her life could take this path or that she'd ever want to be married again, and to the saviour who'd broken her curse of all people. Love rarely made sense and she'd lost all her family to gain Henry, Emma and the unborn little one who still only seemed to make her presence known through a combination of sore breasts, overly attuned senses and headaches.

Emma knew she was there and her loving attention made the baby seem more real. She spoke to her, kissed the flesh over her as she slept and promised that when she came, she'd be loved.

Was now the first time in her life she'd suffered an abundance instead of a lack of affection? Her father had loved her, and her mother, in their way, but her father hadn't been able to save her and her mother's love came with pain. There was no reproach in David's eyes as he watched his daughter take the hands of the woman who'd tried to take his life. Snow radiated benevolent joy and forgiveness: a perfect queen in ivory silk. Neither of them asked her to be anything more than she was. No one cared that Emma preferred breeches to dresses and there was no disappointment in Henry's eyes as he stared at his mothers.

Was this what she'd been missing? Was this the kind of love everyone waxed poetic about? Love that came without control and bargaining, where no one asked her to be good.

Snow seemed to trust her implicitly, but was that because she'd bought and tested Regina's loyalty by risking Emma's life? Regina hadn't been able to ask about the mine, thinking of the choking dust in the air brought up a panic she couldn't yet deal with. Something had happened the morning the mine had collapsed, something dark that no one spoke of. Was Rumpelstiltskin's hand in that? Life meant little to him. He would have sacrificed Emma without hesitation, now that her purpose was complete. Regina had also served her purpose. There was no reason to redeem her, nothing to be gained by destroying the kingdom's fear of her with Emma's blood.

These were accusations she couldn't make. She didn't dare shake the acceptance that kept her from prison. Regina was Emma's true love and the entire kingdom knew it. Did it really matter how it had come to pass?

Snow wouldn't, she couldn't, but if she had, if that darkness in her heart had hold of her-

Could darkness be redeemed? Had Regina's heart been saved by Emma's gift of her own? If David already loved Snow, what could save her?

Regina knelt at Snow's feet beside Emma, her knees against the magically still sea. The genie would be in it, as he was in everything that watched her, but he'd had to watch so much of her with Emma that he'd pulled away, gone quiet in his self-inflicted prison. Did he resent her for loving Emma the way she'd never loved him? Did he think this too was a farce as her love for him had been?

Cora would have hated her for kneeling, especially to Snow White. Yet as Snow praised their love and asked them to rise joined as one, Regina only felt peace. Snow could rule the kingdom and deal with the petty squabbles of the peasants as they rebuilt their lives, she had her only little family to take care of, and a life she hadn't lived. She'd been the queen, then the Evil Queen and somewhere along the way she'd lost Regina.

Emma knew her, and she was starting to see pieces of herself again. Sometimes on patrol with Ruby she felt like her old self, momentarily free in the woods.

Except her freedom never stopped. Emma would never bind her with magic to make her stay and for that, she'd never have a need.

Snow stood on the water as if it were marble of her throne room with Triton on one side, his tail wrapped in a pillar of water, and David on the other. Henry was on David's right, smiling and trying to be proper. He always dressed as merfolk now, no longer bothering with clothing over his narrow little chest. His father was on land today, back by Rumpelstiltskin and Belle. Did it sting to watch Emma marry another? Was he happy that she'd found what he hadn't given her?

She couldn't see much beyond Emma's smiling face, and slowly her thoughts quieted. Emma had her hands and they traded rings. These were enchanted, a gift from the fairies and dwarves, so that Emma and Regina could always find each other.

Dreading there would be a need to find Emma again, Regina looked into her eyes and hope, unfamiliar but beautiful, rose in her chest.

Promising herself to Emma was easy, and she did it with a gladness she'd never expected to feel. Being bound was her greatest fear, but Emma brought no chains. She nearly feared something would happen before Emma finished her own promise. Regina didn't deserve this, yet it happened. By the law of their land, the laws of magic and the oldest laws of life and death never scratched to parchment, Emma was hers and she was Regina's.

When it was done, Regina forgot to be afraid. She let go of waiting for something, anything, to go wrong, and when Emma took her arm to walk back to the sand, even the chill in the air didn't reach her.

Leaves fell around them, dancing on the mirrored sea. They were married and nothing could break it.

Emma kissed her, then kissed her again, holding her so close and so tightly that they exhaled together, sharing a moment of relief.

They were wed.

Henry was first to hold them. He smelt of the sea, salty and wild, but he was their little boy. Triton's magic gave him water that served almost as legs, letting him embrace them both as if he were not trapped in the sea. He'd given up his legs for them both, so Emma's magic could save them all. He still seemed guilty, as if there were some dark sorrow he hadn't told them.

Perhaps in time he'd change his mind. He could be so stubborn when he wanted to be. He was both of their son in that respect, somehow tougher than them both. Had she done that to him or would Henry always have been so strong?

He didn't feel the cold. Even though all the humans on the water and the beach wore long cloaks, Henry hugged them with a bare chest. Merfolk magic had its ways, and neither of his mother's understood much of it.

He seemed happy. His smile was sincere and he laughed as Emma made jokes about all the things that could have gone wrong.

It was perfect. Somehow they were perfect and she didn't know how to just let it all in. Emma's hand was her lifeline and she clung to it as they and Henry were swarmed by the kingdom. Few dared to approach Regina any closer than to kiss her hand, but Ruby dared to hug her and the Widow Lucas (who had asked to be Granny to everyone even though it was not her name), remained long enough to meet Regina's eyes.

She took her shoulders, as if appraising her and then hugged her with a strength that gave away the creature she'd once been.

"Congratulations, Regina. I hope you'll be very happy together." She pulled her close and when she whispered, it was for Regina alone. "You take care of yourself and that baby now."

Regina tried to bury her surprise because Ruby wouldn't have told her. She'd promised. She must have flinched, but Granny patted her to reassure her. "Even if I couldn't smell it, your breasts would have given it away. Any woman who's had a child is going to see it if she's at all observant."

Perhaps Emma was not the only one who'd noticed how much they'd changed.

Granny patted her cheek before moving on. "You're almost radiant as well, dear."

Thankfully the dwarves followed and none of them dared anything more than polite congratulations. Was it easier to accept darkness when you carried it within yourself? The fairies certainly weren't ready to embrace her, and only Blue, their leader, even addressed Regina at all.

She touched the ring on her tiny hand, bringing out a silver glow. "If you are separated, these will lead you to each other, always. We could think of no greater gift to give you."

"Thank you," Regina said, hoping it sounded sincere. The rings were beautiful, and though the hypocrisy of the acceptance of magic only when it suited 'good' often frustrated her, here she could be grateful.

"I hope we won't often have need of them."

"Or ever, really," Emma said, dropping her arm to Regina's waist. "But it's great to have them. Thank you, thank you all."

Emma sounded more regal every day, whether she believed it or not.

"Well, this is a development no one predicted, isn't it, dearies?" Rumpelstiltskin kissed Regina's hand first, then bowed slightly lower to kiss Emma's.

"I think it's wonderful," Belle said, hugging Emma tightly.

Regina, who'd kidnapped her, did not expect any such affection. Belle was polite, kinder than Regina would have thought she'd be, but she was forever underestimating the abilities of others to forgive. Was it part of being 'good' to let go so easily? One flash of true love and the Evil Queen could be the Saviour's wife. Everyone would be polite about it, but was it truly that easy?

Belle hid no malice in her eyes but relief ran through Regina when Aurora, Mulan and Phillip followed. None of them knew her, and she had no history with them. They were easier to smile at and accept that their congratulations were genuine.

Aurora had been raised to be unfailing polite, because she was a princess, yet her embrace was genuine and kind. Mulan and Philip were more reserved, both kissing her hand and it was easy enough to smile at them both.

Snow stood just beyond them, close enough that she could see if anyone failed to be polite to their Princess and her consort. The line of guests went on and on until all the faces that weren't really happy to see her blurred together.

Emma held her, pulling her a little closer when someone's eyes were particularly strained. No one would speak against their princess, and it was a different, less visceral fear than they'd had of Regina when she was queen. When it finally ended, she took a moment of Emma for her own and held her.

Tugging at her corseted bodice, Emma sighed. "I was hoping you'd wear the corset."

"Someday, dear," Regina promised. Resting her hand on Emma's chest, she stole a glance down at her belly. Her dress clung a little, but her stomach was rounder than it had been when she'd first been fitted. It was good that they hadn't waited. The dressmakers would have certainly realised Regina's condition if they'd seen her more then twice.

"You okay? No sneaky dark magic at the reception? No kidlet swimming around your insides?"

Wincing a little at the literal idea of that thought, Regina shook her head. "I'm fine. I'm so happy I don't think my stomach dare do anything."

"I was nervous this morning," Emma said. Rubbing Regina's arms through the thin fabric of her dress, she pulled Regina's cloak a little tighter. "Then I saw you, and I knew this was right."

"Marriage is right because you find me so sexually irresistible?"

"Yeah, that's how it works, doesn't it?"

Regina kissed her. "Yes, dear. That's the point of marriage."

Emma's hand brushed against her swollen breast. "Good, because I am so ready for the wedding night."

"You don't think we've practiced enough?"

"Humour me. I've never had wedding night sex and I've heard all about it. Romantic comedies would never lie to me, would they?"

"Emma-"

"After dinner, you're mine." Emma's hands dropped suggestively to her lower back.

"Didn't I already promise to be yours?"

"I don't think anyone would have forgiven me for taking you right there, in front of the kingdom."

Regina leaned close, toying with Emma's breast beneath her jacket. "Who knew you had such an exhibitionist streak."

"When it comes to you, I think I could do anything." Emma kissed her neck, then stood back. "We need to get back. Henry will be waiting for us."

"And your parents, and the rest of the kingdom. Weddings aren't for the couple getting married, they're a show for everyone else." Her last wedding had dragged on into the small hours of the night where the end of her performance had been for Leopold alone.

Perhaps Emma would be enough to soften those memories for good. She never flinched from sex and she'd quickly learned to control it, how to be safe, but once she'd been a frightened young woman who knew not what was going to happen to her when her wedding dress came off.

"All the more reason to hurry up and get to the night, right?" Taking her hand, Emma drew Regina back to the crowd. "You and me, we can smile and be nice and carb up for tonight."

"Emma-"

"Now is about them, later, well, later is just you and me, and I love you." Emma's thumb ran across Regina's palm. "I especially love you naked."

The shiver than ran up her spine only had a little fear, which was already progress. She had no reason to be afraid of Emma, nor of going to bed with her, but old memories were slow to die. Emma would understand, if only Regina could find the words to explain.

* * *

King Triton's spell had great power, and for one evening, all the merfolk on the shore of the Enchanted Forest, walked on the land. It was a wedding gift of sorts, allowing Henry to be with his mothers, in their home, when he'd given so much of himself away. He ran as soon as his legs appeared, laughing as he emerged from the sea. The other merfolk were less hasty, walking was odd for them, even Triton, who had admitted he'd never used this power before.

His great trident made such things possible, because it controlled the seas in a way nothing Emma had seen could. Even Rumpelstiltskin was impressed and it took great magic for him to raise an eyebrow. Regina hugged Henry tight and barely let him go so everyone else could hug him too. Triton's spell had dressed them all in cloth of the sea, which glimmered like sunlit water, and seemed to be warm enough for the cool evening. Henry, Triton, Ariel, three of her sisters and all of Triton's Enchanted Forest diplomats came to the wedding feast.

Much of it had to be vegetarian, and Snow had been careful to make sure no fish was offered. Land animals were outside the realm of Triton's control and the eating of them was less offensive, but none of his people touched any of the meat. Nor did Henry, and though he'd only been away just more than a month, his mannerism had already changed. He was slow to take up knife and fork, because the merfolk used no utensils. He drank nothing, because they had no liquids that they imbibed. Emma watched the dark sorrow grow in Regina's eyes, and tried to stay close to her. He was already changing, but he was happy. It wasn't just giddy joy to see his family again, he'd found something of himself beneath the sea.

They'd have the occasional visit between worlds, but Henry's world seemed to already be starting to change. He told stories of playing with whales, swimming from sharks and maintaining the reefs. Regina started to approve a little when Henry mentioned the chores he had. Just like Ariel, he had a section of the ocean to maintain and many responsibilities that far exceeded just keeping his toys put away and doing his homework. Baelfire had begun to tutor him in what he knew of the Enchanted Forest, and though Emma worried that his lessons might turn Henry even further from magic, Henry's academic progressed seemed to be enough to make Regina happy.

Something was bothering her, and Emma suspected it was more than Henry. She was thrilled about the wedding, radiant with joy, but it was tempered. Perhaps she had poor memories of weddings, or the way that the entire kingdom seemed to be here to support Emma and her family and only tolerated their former queen was harder on her than she let on. While Emma adored listening to Henry's stories, she wanted to be alone with Regina, and not just to take off her gorgeous dress a little bit at a time. Holding her hand when she could helped, but it wasn't Regina in her arms, and being the centre of attention was an exhausting responsibility.

Her mother said all crowns were heavy, and even the little tiara Emma had agreed to wear at the wedding seemed to be made of stone when she thought of how many people still wanted to congratulate her. She tried to do most of the talking, making sure Regina ate because she wasn't sure when either of them had eaten lunch. When Snow and David finally announced the bedding ceremony.

Emma leaned in towards Regina. "I suppose we can't just announce that we need no fertility blessings at this time."

"It would break several traditions," Regina said. She struggled to maintain her smile, but she valiantly kept it.

Was she just tired? Emma glanced at her mother. Snow had her queen's smile, not the one Emma knew just as her mother's. She was missing something. There was some nuance, some history Emma didn't know. Regina and Snow shared a look as the Blue Fairy explained the importance of the bedding ceremony and then Emma caught on.

Regina had been through this bedding ceremony, for this kingdom once before, with a man she didn't love. Snow had been there then, and perhaps the Blue Fairy had also been the one to bless Regina and Snow's father. Emma should have realised sooner when she could have done something about it. Had that first wedding night been worse than she imagined? Had Regina known anything about sex? Cora, heartless as she was, couldn't have been very supportive.

She kissed Regina's cheek, wishing she could apologise for not thinking ahead. Much of her kingdom was still a mystery to Emma and now she'd failed to protect Regina from reliving a difficult past.

"I'll take Regina," Snow said, smiling with serene happiness, "For she has long been my family." Ruby, Ella and Granny went with her, standing behind. That was good because Ruby was Regina's partner on patrol, maybe they were closer than Emma thought. Granny was brusque, but caring. Ella and Regina had no history, and Ella was a dear friend of Snow's. Maybe they could calm her because they'd be kind.

She hugged Henry one more time, holding him tight before she released him back to the dancing. He came with the line of the farandole all the way to Emma, so she grabbed him.

"Love you, kid."

"Have fun, Mom."

"Oh she will," Aurora said. Her eyes were bright from liquor and excitement.

Henry winced and ducked away, disappearing into the dance he only had a few more hours to enjoy.

"Then we'll take Emma!" Belle and Aurora headed for her, giggling, with a more serious Mulan in tow. Kathryn- Princess Abigail of the former lands of Midas- Emma corrected herself, invited Ariel and her sisters and Emma's boisterous bedding party surrounded her, leaving the great hall full of men, music and drink.

The smoke from the great fires hung in the stairs, adding the sweetness of woodsmoke to the air. Surrounded, Emma began to lose her clothing as they climbed. Everyone was taking things, bits of ribbon, buttons and other pieces of Emma's coat she'd thought were bizarrely oversewn.

"For luck," Belle said, holding one up. "Anything you've had on is lucky."

"Anything?" Emma repeated, hoping she'd have something left when she reached her chambers. They stopped in one of the bedrooms, peeling off Emma's boots as they pushed her down to the bed.

Aurora undid the complex braid in Emma's hair, Mulan took the buttons of her bodice, Belle had the laces and all of them laughed and joked as they stripped her. It was like a sleepover, fuelled with mead and wine. The sweetness of mead was on the breath of the women around her and Emma relaxed into the odd tradition. She was closer to Regina with each piece of clothing they took from her.

Her boots hit the floor and lay abandoned, her coat fell victim next, then her bodice, sleeves and breeches.

Ariel and her sisters watched more than they joined in, completely fascinated. The magical dresses made of seawater that they all wore had no fastenings of any kind nor any layers. Emma's complicated bridal clothing had to be one of the strangest things they'd seen.

"Do you always wear so much?

"Why are there different buttons?"

"Doesn't wearing such complicated clothing take up too much of your time? Couldn't you just wrap yourselves in blankets and stay warm that way?"

Their questions continued to fly, but Emma didn't need to answer them. She was for Regina.

Mulan brushed out Emma's hair, freeing it from the braids across her head and letting it fall. Her hands, strong and gentle, made it quick work. Soon they had Emma down to her shift. It was silk, smooth as butter against her skin and left very little to anyone's imagination.

Aurora rubbed Emma's arms, trying to keep her warm. "There's a fire in your room."

Standing on the fur on the cool stone, Emma nodded. "Good."

"Regina will keep you warm," Belle said with a wicked grin. "Ready?"

Nearly naked, with her hair down on her shoulders, Emma shrugged. "I am if you guys are."

Kissing her cheek, Aurora sighed happily. "You're beautiful."

The kissing seemed to be a thing because everyone did it, even the mermaids. Aurora took Emma's hand and led her from the room with her abandoned clothing to the bedroom, her bedroom. The sheets and blankets were already turned down, a fire crackled in the hearth, two glasses of wine waited for them on a table and Emma flicked her fingers towards one of them.

She'd been trying to master the purification spell and taking the alcohol out of drinks was the easiest poison-removing practice.

Mulan gave her a questioning look.

"Regina said she had a headache. Wine makes it worse."

"So you?" Aurora began.

"Turned it to grape juice, I think. It might be purple water, sometimes I go to far." Emma lifted the glass and sniffed it. "Grape juice."

"Now you get in the bed." Belle arranged the pillows so Emma and Regina would be able to sit comfortably. "When Queen Snow brings Regina in, she'll get in with you, the Blue Fairy will bless you both and we'll all leave to let you enjoy yourselves."

Emma climbed into the bed and tried not to think about how weird it was to be surrounded by women she barely knew while she got ready for her first night as a married woman. It was good that Snow was with Regina. This is was weird enough to be almost funny for Emma, but Snow would be kind in a way Regina might need.

"We should have gone with your tradition," Emma said to Mulan.

"Kidnapping the bride and making you ransom her would have been fun."

Wrapping her arms around her chest, Emma frowned. "I would have given you guys anything."

"Hence the fun."

The door creaked open; the heavy oak dragged a little across the stone. Ruby came first, holding a candle and smiling. Granny followed her with the Blue Fairy just over her shoulder. Then Snow, holding Regina's hand as if she were her mother, bringing her to give her away.

Regina's smile was bright but still forced. The tightness around her eyes had nothing to do with happiness. Maybe she really did have a headache and Emma's little lie was truer than she thought. Perhaps the wedding had tired her out enough that they'd spend the night holding each other, which was entirely fine. Emma wanted to grab Regina close and hold her until that smile was real.

Snow kissed Regina's cheek, just as Aurora had. "I'm so happy for you both."

Regina's smile had truth to it for a moment, then she joined Emma in the bed. Emma slipped her foot across, sharing the contact of their bare feet beneath the blankets. Belle and Snow handed over the goblets of wine and the newly purified grape juice and Regina and Emma held them up.

The Blue Fairy raised her wand above them in benediction. Her words were old, hanging in the air like cobwebs. She'd never heard anything like them. Maybe it was fairy speak, or some kind of ancient tongue. Whatever language it was, Emma didn't know and it was a little creepy to be covered in sparkles, but she had her wine, so she drank it. The red warmed her chest all the way to her stomach.

Regina nudged her foot, thanking her for changing the wine. Emma really needed to learn to do it the other way. Water into wine was supposed to be the saviour's best party trick.

"May your union be blessed," Snow said. She circled to Emma's side of the bed and kissed her cheek. "I love you." She reached for Regina's shoulder and stroked it. "And you, I love you."

The tears Regina had been fighting began to seep through her control. Belle took their goblets. Mulan stoked the fire. Ruby blew out all the candles save the one wrapped in ribbons and flowers because that one would burn all night as a symbol of their union. Ariel and her sisters waved and left the room, giggling. Aurora fixed their blankets one last time and then only Snow was left.

She smiled, warmth lighting her face. "I suppose I don't need to tell you two what to do."

"We're all right, Mom."

"I know you are." Snow's eyes rested on them both in turn, then she left, sealing them in together.

Ready to kiss Regina properly, Emma turned to her and immediately changed her mind. When she embraced her, Regina trembled in her arms and her tears came even faster.

"Hey-"

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, just tell me. What is it? What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Regina-"

"I'm so sorry."

Emma held her, leaning back on the pillows and watching the fire play in the hearth. "Sorry for what?"

"Being a mess."

"I think a certain amount of wedding day mess is entirely fair. It's been a very long day."

"That's not-"

"Okay, what is it?" Silence hung heavy besides the murmuring of the fire.

Regina curled closer into Emma's chest and Emma pulled up the blankets, in case she was cold. "I keep thinking about my mother."

"Your mother?"

"I was so angry, about Daniel. I made a deal with Rumpelstiltskin, I pushed her through a mirror with magic into another realm."

Emma ran her fingers through Regina's hair and wondered who'd brushed it. Probably Ruby, while Snow fussed with Regina's dress. She waited for Regina to continue.

"I read that part in the book."

"She didn't tell me."

"Tell you what?"

Regina tried to take a slow, calming breath but she failed entirely and her trembling only worsened. "About a husband and wife."

"A husband and wife?" The wine and all the wine before that clouded her head. "What about them?"

Shaking her head, Regina clung to the sheet, balling her hand into a fist.

Emma was an idiot. "No one told you about sex."

"My mother would have, I think, but I was so angry with her. Snow and the ladies of the court took me through the bedding ceremony and Snow was so happy I was her mother but no one told me what was going to happen. I'd been so sheltered. I'd heard the maids gossiping a little but mother never let them speak to me."

"And Snow's father?"

She didn't need to ask. A king with a daughter already, who'd loved his first wife, had been presented with a beautiful, confused, hurt young woman who'd just banished her abusive mother. It was a real mess.

"My first time was awkward," Emma began. "I was kind of drunk and I wanted to be cool, not a prude, so I said I'd done it before, that I knew what I was doing, but then it hurt, more than I thought, and it still hurt the next day and I thought I'd done it all wrong."

"Was it Baelfire?"

"Just a guy. I spent the night then but it was stupid. We were hungover and awkward in the morning and I was sore. By the time I got to Baelfire I knew what I wanted from a guy, at least, I convinced myself that I did."

Regina's hand released her the death grip of the sheet and she shook her fingers, as if trying to force herself to relax. "I was tense. I think it hurt more because I was. I was so afraid. I'd never even seen a naked man and I didn't want to cry because I didn't want him to know how much I- I didn't know there was room for him inside of me and it hurt but I was supposed to be queen, I had to be good-"

Hushing her, Emma stroked her arms over and over. "It's all right."

"I'm terrified." Regina shifted so she straddled Emma's legs, trying to hold herself together. "Part of me wants to run from the room, but it's you and I'm not afraid of you. It doesn't make any sense."

"It's okay. You were afraid then and you didn't deal with it. Now is a lot like then, but so you're terrified." Emma reached for Regina's cold, hands and took them, ignoring the sweat that coated Regina's skin. "We can go."

"Go? Where?"

"Outside, or to another room. We can sleep under the stars on the battlements if you want."

Regina squeezed her hands. "That won't be necessary."

"It could be fun."

"Fairies are determined voyeurs, my dear. I don't particularly feel like putting on a show."

Emma ran her thumbs along the back of Regina's hands. "Okay."

Regina dropped her head, resting it against Emma's forehead. Her tears left little spots of dampness on Emma's shift. "I don't want to be afraid."

"You either get through it or you let it go. I used to try to get through it. Grit my teeth, tell myself I didn't care what happened to me. I liked to fuck and I didn't care about the emotional consequences. So I fucked people and left before morning. The only person I've woken up next to since Baelfire is you, and you're the only person I ever want to wake up next to again." Emma spent a moment smiling at Regina's belly. "Or the kid. It would be nice if she slept here for awhile."

"You believe in co-sleeping?" Regina's mind switched tracks completely and Emma stared.

"What's that?"

"Having the baby sleep in our bed."

She'd stumbled onto some kind of parenting thing she knew nothing about and couldn't look up on the internet.

"Don't you? At least for awhile? It seems kind of stupid to put the kid in another room when you're just going to have to get up and grab her when she cries."

Regina smiled, really smiled so that the fear faded from her. "You haven't read any of the books about parenting, have you?"

"I haven't exactly been able to get onto Amazon." If talking about the baby meant happy, glowing Regina instead of a terrified one, Emma could work with that. "Is there some kind of controversy I should know about?"

Rocking back, Regina sat on the bed, holding one of Emma's hands against her belly as if there was something there to feel. "I tried to read everything. Attachment parenting, co-sleeping, teaching your baby to sleep through the night. There weren't any right answers and Henry, let's say he didn't agree with any of the books I read."

Flattening her hand against Regina's belly, Emma tried to imagine how tiny their baby was beneath her skin. "Is there stuff you want me to know? I can't exactly read the books you did."

"We'll figure it out. There's no formula so I'll have to breastfeed, or we'll need a wetnurse, so that debate's solved. We only have cloth diapers. There's no really much of an argument about which stroller we'll get because they don't exist." Exhaling finally seemed to relax her.

"Mulan said she'd teach me how to tie a baby on like they do in Qin. That seemed pretty handy."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, you-" Emma paused and looked round the room. Grabbing a long stole from one of the chairs, she wrapped it around her waist. "Hand me a pillow."

Skeptical but willing, Regina handed over a pillow. Emma fussed with the stole for awhile, then managed to wrap it around herself and the pillow so it was against her chest.

"Something like this. She does it better."

"The warrior knows about childcare?"

Tossing the pillow back at her, Emma returned to the bed. "Some people have had varied life experiences, your highness the princess-consort."

"Your Royal Highness the Princess Consort," Regina corrected. "That's the formal address. You and I are just princesses for everyday."

"Well that's new for you, isn't it?"

"I don't care what my title is." Regina stripped off her shift, dropping it to the floor where it lay in a puddle of silk. "I care about you."

Chuckling, Emma sat up, now Regina had her full attention. "So we're doing this now?"

"Only if you want to," Regina teased, trailing a hand lazily down her own neck. "I think you were looking forward to this for some reason."

Rising to her knees, Emma removed her own shift, letting it slide to the floor with Regina's. The heat of the fire reached her skin and with that look in Regina's eyes, she couldn't be cold. Her hair tickled her back as she crawled towards Regina on the bed.

"You're okay?"

"Must have been hormones."

Shaking her head, Emma toyed with a piece of Regina's hair. "You don't need to do anything for me. I love you. I'll love you if we never have sex again."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. I'd be devastated."

"Clearly."

"But I'd love you."

Regina's lips curled, playful now that she was safe. "You will always love me?"

"It's what we do in my family. We're an always sort of bunch."

Regina's hand slipped down Emma's chest, heading for her navel. "And if I want you?"

"You know I'm yours."

"Do I?"

"Absolutely."

Regina's cool fingers danced across Emma's hip, tapping out a pattern that made sense only to her. "You're sure you don't want to grab all the blankets and head to the top of the tower?"

Widening her legs, Emma adopted an innocent look. "You think you can wait that long? That's a lot of stairs."

"Are you calling me impatient?"

"Yeah."

Regina's hand dropped all the way down to tease the ache between Emma's legs. "Really? Me impatient?"

Emma's voice broke a little, but she still had some control. "I want you to do this because you want it, not because it's our wedding night and you feel like you have to. We can talk about the baby and cuddle-" The offer died in her throat, turning into a moan.

"I'm sure it's you now," Regina whispered. Staring into her eyes, she started to tease Emma's clit with slick fingers. "I'm safe with you."

"We should talk about-" Emma's protest died in a gasp. She caught her breath again. "-About your husband. It's not good to shove things down."

Regina rubbed her breasts against Emma's, pressing the need to decrease the space between them. "Tomorrow?"

Her legs parted legs offered the soft black curls and the promise of Regina's wet arousal beneath. Emma reached up towards her, tracing her fingers along Regina's thigh.

"Soon," Emma promised. "It doesn't have to be tomorrow, but it should be soon. You don't need to be afraid anymore. You're safe."

"With you."

"Together, we're safe together." Emma punctuated her promise by sliding one of her fingers just across Regina's labia enough to gather some of the wetness of her arousal. The pad of her index finger rolled slowly across Regina's clit, drawing a little gasp.

Regina's eyes seemed darker; her stare more intense. Looking at her, through her, while touching her was the kind of crazy intimate that Emma had never bothered to have with anyone else. Regina lived in her soul, filling her up beyond what she'd once thought was her capacity to love. Emma never wanted responsibilities; she wasn't good enough for anyone to depend on her, but now was different. She could handle it, right? Maybe if she took it in parts. Love Regina, love the kids safe, love her parents, love the realm: if she started with the easy ones, maybe she could handle the big one.

Be wife and mother first, then fill in the rest.

Regina rose above her, then slipped her thigh between Emma's. The soft friction against her leg was less intense than Regina's hand and that was probably better if either of them wanted this to last. Her breasts hung over Emma, so rounded by her pregnancy that Regina complained that they already itched. Emma cupped them with her hands, supporting them from beneath. Her nipples hardened against Emma's palms, dark against Regina's olive skin.

"Gently," Regina protested, though the breathiness of her voice suggested Emma hadn't been too rough.

"Is it better with you on the bottom?" Emma asked, raising her leg from the bed to taunt the inside of Regina's thighs. "We can swap."

"They're always sore-"

Rubbing a thumb across Regina's nipple made her gasp, again.

"-And sensitive."

Emma kissed her from the bed, then rolled them both so Regina lay on the bed beneath her. Licking her way down Regina's neck, she smiled. "Better?"

"Perhaps."

Regina's hands kept reaching, dipping inside Emma then circling her clit. She held herself up, focusing on the skin of Regina's stomach and trying to ignore her sore breasts. Regina's attention to her clit made it hard to keep her balance, so Emma shifted, dropping her mouth all the way down and lifting Regina's hips to pulled her clit into her mouth.

"Emma-" Regina aroused past the ability to speak was incredibly sexy. Her parted lips only gasped instead of forming words. Slipping her tongue down, then inside, Emma tried to prolong climax, letting up enough for Regina to catch her breath. Forcing her to rise again, Emma turned her breathing quick and desperate.

Regina tried to pull herself back, squirming beneath Emma's mouth, but Emma wanted to watch her go over the brink. The deep darkness of her eyes, the heady sound of her breathing and the way for just a moment, everything stopped, made Regina's orgasms truly beautiful. Pulling back just a little, Emma replaced her lips with her slick fingers and kissed her way back up towards Regina's mouth. Regina grabbed the sheet this time with a much more pleasant desperation.

"I love you," Emma muttered into her neck. "I love you."

Catching her head, Regina pulled Emma's eyes up so they were inches apart. Emma lost herself in Regina's eyes, almost forgetting the physical side of pleasure as connection washed over her. This had an intimacy she still wasn't quite sure what to do with. Regina knew her, all the way to her darkest places, and neither of them would pull away.

They traded orgasms, back and forth, sweat dampening the sheets. Emma's hair hung in a mass of soft curls and Regina's flipped out in all the oddest places. The sheets, tangled beyond hope, bunched at the bottom of the bed. Emma's heart raced, her body finding the strength for so much pleasure. It was well past midnight when they held each other softly instead of hungrily.

Regina sat up and immediately gave up on the sheets. The blankets weren't as soft, but they were so much easier to move. Emma rolled to her back, letting Regina curl against her side. That and spooning were the most comfortable so far, and Regina liked having her head on Emma's shoulder.

Their candle burned low by the window, softening the darkness in the room.

"You okay?"

"I can't believe you need to ask."

Emma laughed, squeezing Regina's wrist. "I like to."

"My toes tingle."

"That's pretty normal."

"It only is with you." Regina patted Emma's chest. "You ought to take that as a compliment."

"The noises you make are all I really need."

"Says the woman who shrieked."

"You don't know what that was like. I thought I was done."

"You always push me again."

"Because I think it's adorable that you can get another one. I can't-"

"The shriek says otherwise."

"I couldn't," Emma amended. "I thought I was going to pass out."

"I'd have found a way to wake you." Regina kissed Emma's breast before settling back down. "They're going to bring us breakfast."

"Oh?"

"Two knocks and they'll leave it outside the door."

"When does anyone expect us to come up for air?"

Regina curled closer, so warm against Emma's skin. "Dinner."

"Marriage has its benefits," Emma finished, lifting Regina's hand to kiss it. "Here's to not venturing out until dinner."

* * *

Rumpelstiltskin met her at the entrance of the mine, his cane tapping against the stone. Snow stepped from the darkness, letting him see her before they both disappeared into the shadows.

"It worked."

"It was close," Snow said. "You underestimated the power she'd have to deal with."

"This was a cursed land, your majesty, that darkness doesn't immediately ebb away simply because your daughter rescued the former queen's heart. Some of it hides."

Snow lifted her lantern and indicated the mine before them. "Where else is it hiding?"

Rumpelstiltskin twitched his fingers in the air and took a step towards her. The glittering sheen had crept back onto his skin, making him golden in the weak light. "Shouldn't you be at the castle, trying not to listen to the sounds of your dear daughter's wedding night carrying through the walls?"

"My kingdom must be safe. Emma found some of the darkness here, I need to know about the rest."

"I hate to remind you, but you have no magic, your majesty. There's little you can do."

Snow rested her hand on the dagger tucked into her belt. She'd left her finery behind, finding it easier to slip through her people when she dressed simply. "My daughter and my new daughter-in-law have magic. If I know what's happening, they can stop it."

"You'd risk their lives?"

"They're heroes," Snow replied. "I won't even need to ask."


	2. two

**Warning: This chapter contains discussion of Regina's marriage to Leopold and non-consensual sex within it. It's in the first scene between Emma and Regina if you want to skip over it. It's mostly emotional, with no detailed descriptions.**

* * *

Regina sighed and set down her weak cup of tea. "I never thought I'd miss the diner's coffee."

"I know, right?" Emma licked honey from her knife and set it down on her empty plate. "I miss maple syrup. Even fake maple-flavoured, mostly junk syrup."

"I don't know where you were eating that, but the diner did not serve it." Pushing the tray down the bed, Regina sat back.

"In my old life, Henry never got any, I promise."

Stroking Emma's shoulder, Regina nodded. "I believe you, dear."

Emma stood, stretching, and removed the tray from the bed. The sun was already high in the sky, pouring in across the bed. The fire still burned in the hearth so their room was a bright, warmth hideaway from the world. Emma set their empty plates beside the door then checked the heap of melted wax of their unity candle.

"I don't see how this is romantic. It looks like a volcano gone wrong."

"It's less about us and more about the symbolism. It burns all night to show how love endures."

Emma made a face. "Love is messy and kind of stuck to the table."

"Sometimes it is."

Chuckling, Emma returned to the bed, crawling up Regina's legs. "I've never gotten you stuck to the table."

"You've never had me on a table."

Emma's hair fell over her shoulders, cascading down to tickle Regina's skin. She was so beautiful this morning, rumpled and glowing.

"Is that a challenge?"

"If you like." Holding Emma's face as she smiled, Regina watched and tried reinforce that this was really happening. Emma was hers. No one would take her. For the moment, however brief, she meant to enjoy her.

Emma kissed her, soft and sweet. "How are you?"

"This may be one of the most wonderful mornings of my life."

"Yeah?"

Regina eased her fingers through Emma's golden hair. "Yes."

"We could start getting up earlier and try to have sex every morning." Kissing her again, Emma lowered her head to Regina's belly and kissed her there. "You really don't take up much space, do you, kid?"

"I think she's taking up all of it on the inside."

"You only got up to pee three times last night, I don't know what you're complaining about."

Regina shook her head and started to roll away so Emma couldn't talk to the baby, but Emma held her still.

"You're beautiful."

"Okay."

Emma laughed and kissed her, leaving heat on Regina's lips. "You're just going to take that?"

"I need to save my energy to argue other things."

Emma's attention remained on the baby, her hand covering where she slept just below Regina's navel.

"Can you feel her?"

"I don't know. There's something in there, and if I sleep on my back, that something means I need to pee, but it doesn't feel like a baby."

"Once it feels like a baby, you'll be sick of it." Emma flopped down beside her and Regina rolled to face her.

"Did you get sick of Henry?"

Old sorrow darkened Emma's blue eyes. "I knew he was leaving when he came out, so the bigger he got, the harder it was for me."

"We don't have to give this baby to anyone." Regina wished she could take that grief away, but Henry leaving Emma had brought her to change the world, so she couldn't wish too hard.

"I wouldn't mind if she was going to you. You're a great mother."

Regina's little smirk began ironically, then melted. Emma's sincerity gleamed in her face. The old grudges weren't forgotten, rather forgiven. "So are you."

Kissing her in thanks, Emma changed the subject. "We have to thank Triton for letting us have Henry yesterday. It was very kind of him."

"We will." The memory of Henry's smile, bright through the crowd warmed her heart but still stung. "I wish we could-"

"I know. We'll work it out."

"Your sea goddess couldn't return him to us."

"She's not mine," Emma said. "I think her name is Mazu. I found a picture of her in one of Belle's books and she seemed to be the one. She's not the only sea goddess. Triton said there are sea gods of many cultures, all sharing the sea. Maybe we just need to find the right one."

"I don't think I'm up for another sea voyager just yet." Lying on her side made her stomach curve outward slightly more than it once had. She didn't have any of her old clothes, but she was certain many of her trousers would have been too tight. Regina laid her hand over the curve, trying to feel what wasn't her through her flesh. "I think I'd rather have her on land."

"We have time. Henry seems to love living with the merfolk."

Before Regina could even mention how much she missed him, Emma read it in her eyes.

"He misses us terribly, but this is good for him. It's an adventure with mermaids his own age. Kid really hasn't had many friends."

"I'm afraid he never fit in at his school. The other children never realised he was growing and he could never remember that they weren't." It had been a cruel part of the curse she hadn't considered at the time. Henry had needed only her, or so she thought. Watching him smile and laugh with Ariel and her sisters, she knew that mistake had cost him.

"He's okay and we'll get him back."

"We will." Regina's agreement had less faith than Emma's, but she tried. Perhaps it was best if Henry grew up away from them both where the history of the curse would be less painful for him.

Emma's thumb ran over her cheek, pulling her closer to kiss her. She tasted of honey and apple pancakes: sweet and faintly of cinnamon. She wouldn't have survived without her; couldn't have lost Henry and held herself together. Yet here they were, together, facing the future. It had promise. Perhaps she would get a happy ending after all.

"Tell me about Leopold."

Quick to look away, Regina had to stare at Emma's thighs, anywhere but her face. "Now?"

"Maybe it'll feel good to get it out."

The only joy she remembered of him was knowing he was dead; that the vipers had done their work. By the time he died, Regina hadn't been killing him to punish Snow or even to take the kingdom. That death had been purely between her and her husband.

"I doubt anything I could say about him will make me anything but wretched."

"Then be wretched with me. I'll hold you." Emma draped her leg over Regina's for emphasis. "It feels better once you've said it. Trust me. I have a lot of things I tried not to say for most of my life and once I said them, screamed some of them, it was better."

"Snow said he was kind, before we wed. I wanted to believe her. My father had been kind and other than Daniel, he was the only man I'd spent any real time with. My father was soft and gentle, and Daniel was much the same. I thought, well, I must have naively thought that all men had such hearts and it was women who were cruel. When Daniel died and I was trapped, I thought being away from my mother would be enough. I could wait to get my revenge on Snow and at least I was free of her."

Listening patiently, Emma kept her eyes steady. She could be a rock when she wanted to be and Regina loved her for that.

"I suppose he thought he was kind. He never held me down. He didn't have to. I knew how to be good." The word tasted of ash in her mouth, bitter and burnt. "He didn't mind how uninterested I was in our marital bed."

"You lay there and thought about the ceiling?"

"Most of the time. It got easier. Sometimes I pretended I wanted him, but when he was happier, he took more time and I-" Regina shuddered, her stomach rising to her throat. She'd fought so hard to control herself, to keep Leopold from knowing how much she hated him. Perhaps her body hadn't been able to lie as well as her words, but she'd done her duty. She'd been a good queen. Even when she had to mother the child she despised, that had been easier than pleasing him.

"I never wanted him."

Emma rubbed her tears off her face, her hands warm against Regina's skin. "Do you think he knew?"

"I doubt he cared. I was a good mother for his daughter. Beautiful, the envy of his courtiers, even though all he saw was Snow." Old jealousy flared hot, but quickly turned bitter. "It sounds foolish doesn't it? I hated him for wanting me at all and hated him for not wanting me as much as Snow. He didn't care what I did, as long as I was loyal and shared his bed."

"How did he know you were loyal?"

"I left a diary out where he could read it and he did. Sometimes he even forgot to put it back in the right place and it galled me so to pretend I didn't notice his inept attempts to spy on me. He had me followed to the woods and the servants always reported to him when I failed to give him another child." Anger boiled in her chest, crackling down to her fingertips. Tiny sparks of purple swirled around her skin and Emma's soft blue rose from her touch, calming her on a level beneath conscious thought. Emma supported her from deep within, gentle and patient.

"It wasn't your fault."

"But everyone knew. His beautiful little prize was a barren field."

Emma's laugh cut through the sting of Regina's anger. She'd tried to bury it, even cover it with her hand, yet she grinned. "Sorry."

"What is it?"

"I got you pregnant the third time I did magic with you. We didn't even have to have sex. That seems pretty damn fertile to me."

"Perhaps you have a knack for unplanned pregnancies." Smiling at Emma came easier than she imagined. It didn't even hurt. "I was very angry then. He came to me at night and each time he was inside of me it got worse. He'd lie above me, his sweat on my skin, and I'd wonder if he thought of his first wife, or-" Regina didn't finish the thought, but Emma got it anyway.

"You think he had a thing for Snow?"

"He wouldn't be the first. We looked much alike, her and I, but while she was full of life and hope, I knew only hatred. Sometimes I wished he would just go to her bed instead of mine, that he'd leave me alone for one night, but he didn't. I don't really want that; I would never want that to happen to her. Snow's your mother-"

Emma stopped her, her eyes bright and close. "You went from being a prisoner of your mother's to a prisoner of a king. When you're trapped you want some pretty fucked up shit. Maybe you saved Snow, maybe you didn't. You killed her father because he hurt you; she killed your mother because she would have hurt all of us. Most mother-in-law relationships are complex: yours is pretty unique."

Emma hadn't said anything about Graham. Regina looked away from her eyes, hiding in Emma's chest. Had she made Graham into her? She'd thought she was kind to him and she never hurt him, but would Leopold say the same of her? She hadn't held Graham down because she had his heart. He couldn't have said no even if he'd wanted to. There was no where for him to run. It wasn't the same. Emma would tell her if it was the same, but Emma was quiet. She hadn't pulled away. Magic still glowed in Emma's hands, pale blue in the sunlight. Was she angry? Did she see what Regina had done?

Emma lifted their hands, winding them together. The bright purple angry sparks had gone from Regina's, but the faint purple glow responded to Emma as if some part of her did know how to love without fear. "I don't love you any less. I'll never love you any less than I do right now because you've got me, all of me, and that's not going to change. Okay?"

"All right."

Emma rolled over, lying over Regina as if that would protect her from the world. Her challenge had no teeth and her trust burned in her eyes. "You could say it like you meant it."

"I love you."

Emma's kiss banished the memories of other lips even further back. "That wasn't so hard."

"It is without you." She tried to look away again, but Emma was all around her. Emma didn't need her to look away. She loved even her tears.

"I think that's marriage. Together we're that much better."

"It's a good thing I said yes then, isn't it?" Regina lifted her head, kissing her again. That was always easy.

"Yeah. I don't think I could have handled no."

Regina ran her fingers down until her hand was above Emma's heart. That strange mixed glow of their skin warmed her fingers. Emma's heart beat beneath her hand, fearless, yet not and all the more brave for it. "You asked."

"I wanted yes more than I feared no."

"You wanted me that much?"

"I'll always-"

Regina hushed her, using Emma's tongue for better things than speech.

* * *

She'd spent almost an entire day partially dressed. Emma ran the sponge over her legs, standing in the marble bath. She hadn't bothered with a full bath. The castle's bathtub could nearly float a rowboat and it took an army of servants to fill it. One bucket of hot water and some soap was the shower one got here. She scrubbed behind her knees, then worked all the way down to her feet. The blonde hairs on her leg were longer than she'd ever really let them be before, soft and kind of wild, growing every which way. David shaved with something, probably a dagger, and she could if she wanted to, probably. It didn't mean anything. Regina didn't care, no one saw her legs and now that it had been weeks, Emma didn't really care either.

Maybe there were perks of fairy tale land. She missed showers, but this wasn't that bad. The soap smelt nice, like flowers, and it worked. She'd had worse.

The door to the bath creaked open and Regina entered, still wrapped in her towel. "I thought you might want help with your hair."

Emma set down the sponge and washed the soap from her hands. Her hair hung in tendrils round her face, full of sweat and sex. "You're not here to scrub my back?"

"Perhaps, someday, when Belle's decided how she wants to plumb the castle." Regina sat on the wide edge of the tub, tucking the towel in around her breasts. "Your hair's long, it'll be easier together."

Regina might have just wanted to play with her hair. Emma understood, she adored the way Regina's went half curly when it was wet. Emma's was so fine it hung like straw whenever it was damp, but Regina liked it anyway. Emma leaned over her knees, exposing the back of her neck so Regina could start.

"Are you ready to rejoin the community?"

Hot water cascaded down her neck, running through her hair. Regina's hands followed the water, rubbing soap through. It wasn't the salon brands Regina must have had in her shower, but it was better than some of the crap Emma had used on her hair. It worked anyway. Regina said there were ways to use magic, but that seemed pretty vain.

"If you're with me," Regina said. Massaging Emma's scalp, she hummed without much of a tune. Emma would have been quick and hurried; Regina took her time.

"I was thinking we could go see Henry tomorrow." Emma shut her eyes as water rinsed the soap from her hair. "We have a few days off, don't we?"

"Mulan's patrolling my route with Ruby for three more days."

"A four day honeymoon, you are a workaholic."

Regina flicked water at Emma's face. "When did you say you'd go back to council?"

"The day after tomorrow," Emma said. "I need to learn it. Mom's talking about visiting the neighbouring kingdoms, Ella's and Abigail's, and the kingdoms to the south. If she's going to be away, I have to be in charge and that's a lot more responsibility than keeping Pongo out of people's gardens."

"And two more days will make it easier?" Rinsing her hair a final time, Regina handed Emma a towel and wrapped her hair in another. "Don't worry."

"I'll only be responsible for everyone. What's there to worry about?" Rubbing herself dry, Emma stopped and sat next to Regina on the tub. "Didn't you worry?"

"Power was mine. I didn't care how I used it, just that I kept it."

"But your kingdom-"

"Was wealthy and miserable. You can do better."

"I don't know if just above destitute is better."

"We're hardly destitute."

"How did we get enough gold to trade for food?"

Regina took over, drying Emma's hair while she worried. "Rumpelstiltskin can make all the gold we need."

"Out of the goodness of his heart? My mother must have made a deal with him. You know what deals with him are like."

"Snow wouldn't-" Regina halted her protest. Snow obviously had, and it was the right choice, winter would have been brutal without supplies. "She must have."

"She didn't tell me what she traded. I don't even think my father knows what she traded. We're not going to starve, but Rumpelstiltskin's deals always have more in it for him than we think." Shaking her hair free of the towel, Emma held Regina's shoulders. "Would you come with me?"

"Where?"

"To council. We can spend tomorrow with Henry, then I could use you there."

"I'll be a distraction."

"Not to my mom or Rumpelstiltskin, if he decides to come. We're talking about plumbing again, but it's an expensive project. You're better at numbers than I am. Maybe you'll understand how my mom's paying for it all."

"You don't think they'll object?"

"I'm the princess, right?" She had to look far from regal, all pink from the bath, but her insistence made Regina smile. "If I want you there, I get you there."

"Spoken like royalty."

Emma stole her towel, neatly unwrapping it from Regina's body. She dropped it behind her and held her close. Standing up beside her, there was a slight rounding of Regina's belly that hadn't been there a few weeks ago. When they embraced, it was just enough to be firm against Emma's own. "I just wanted to see you," Emma explained. "You're so beautiful."

"Although you prefer me this way, I think the rest of the kingdom would rather I was dressed."

"Don't need a towel to get dressed." Emma kept it hostage as they headed back into the bedroom, staring at the smooth skin of Regina's nude body.

"Am I really getting dressed?" Regina perched neatly on the edge of the bed, poised as if she were the mayor again, behind her desk.

Emma dropped her own towel on the floor and lunged for her. Laughing, Regina lay back and welcomed Emma's hungry kissing.

"What happens if we're late for dinner?" Emma paused just over Regina's neck.

"Your parents make fun of us. Granny makes us eat more to keep up our strength."

Tangled herself with Regina, Emma thanked whoever was listening that this was her life. Even in the new world, Regina's arms were home.

"I could eat more." Emma nibbled Regina's breast for emphasis, then worked her way down.

* * *

"Here, I'll tighten that." Mulan tightened the loose lace in Regina's armour, her grip sure and practiced.

"Not too tight," Regina warned without thinking.

"It's soft leather, it will still give you room to move."

Regina held the tree in front of her and let Mulan finish. Her armour couldn't be tightened nearly as much as a corset and though it was tighter around her waist than it had been just weeks ago, it still fit.

"If you need it looser, you can add leather panels here, at the sides." Mulan explained, demonstrating with her hands on her own armour.

"Why would I need it looser?" Regina should have let the explanation go. It probably mattered not to Mulan that she was pregnant. Perhaps she only thought that the armour had been made too tight to begin with.

"You're not going to give up patrolling, are you?"

Was she? She couldn't imagine Emma forcing her to stay in the castle. Not for some time yet. Her physical abilities hadn't been noticeably slowed; her magic was arguably stronger, provided she cast from emotions the baby did not react unpleasantly to.

"No." Regina reattached her sword belt round her waist. "I was not planning on it."

"Then you should talk to the armorer. Ask for soft leather panels that you can work in to your armour. If she asks for a pattern, I can draw her one."

Mulan knew. Who'd told her? Ruby wouldn't. Had Emma been worried about her going back on patrol? Was it someone else?

"That's kind of you," Regina said aloud, trying to work out how Mulan must have known.

Catching up to her on the path, Mulan cleared a fallen branch, then paused. "Your balance is different than Emma's or Ruby's. You tread heavier on your heels."

"No one told you?"

Mulan crossed her arms over her chest. "I watch people, study how they move. You can tell much from the way a person takes a step. You're graceful but cautious; careful where you put your feet. You've been taught to fight, but something makes you wary. Emma didn't want you drinking wine, and I inquired after your health to the queen-"

Regina nodded so Mulan didn't have to finish. Snow was a terribly liar, and worse at concealing secrets. Anything she would have said must have confirmed Mulan's suspicions.

"To be honest, I wondered if you were not with child when the queen brought you to bed with Emma. It's obvious if one knows what she's looking for."

Continuing along their path, searching the woods for signs of ogres, Regina let Mulan lead. No one else had even thought she looked pregnant, though everyone she'd cursed had only seen Cinderella's pregnancy fail to progress, day after day. Nothing else had changed in Storybrooke. No children had been born. Mulan had been here, frozen instead of trapped in a world without time. Perhaps it was fresher in her mind. Mulan knew what she was looking for.

"No one else has guessed, besides Ruby, and she smelled it."

"Most do not see what I do." Mulan waved Regina still, pointing ahead where the clearing had been torn by something large. She mouthed "Ogres".

Regina kindled the spark of a fireball between her hands, hiding it within her fingers. Ogres wouldn't see it because they were nearly blind, but the sound of the spark might have carried to their excellent ears. No ogres rushed into the clearing, nor did the sounds of their feet crunching through the underbrush assault their ears.

Mulan motioned for them to move forward, examining the tracks more clearly. Something huge had walked here, but its feet were not the round, clumsy tracks of ogres. They were clawed and had sunk deep into the grassy earth.

Crouching down, Mulan studied the grass. "I don't know these tracks."

A sinking in Regina's stomach suggested she might be the only one who knew these tracks. Peering over Mulan's shoulder, she studied the heavy marks where claws had torn the earth. The trees above were broken, crushed by something large passing through. It had landed here, then walked to the edge of the clearning, tracks shrinking as she walked.

"These look human," Mulan said, pointing to the smallest tracks visible. "A shapeshifter of some kind?"

"You could say that, however, Regina knows my name." Followed by laughter, the lilting voice carried scorn far heavier than its light tone.

Regina froze, dropping her hands from her weapon. No sword could help her.

Sensing her fear, Mulan stepped in front of her, putting her body between Regina and the yet unseen danger. She couldn't know that there was nothing she could do to stop that voice, that Regina had only beaten her last time because Maleficent had something to lose and Regina did not. Now she had everything to lose and Maleficent had only anger. She'd had nearly three decades to stew in it and if she had been restored by the curse as well, her happy ending would have dire consequences for everyone Regina loved.

A stick snapped and Maleficent stepped out of the shadows into the light. She hadn't aged, hadn't changed since the last time Regina had seen her in human form. Her hair fell down her back in a tumble of golden curls, but her eyes burned. Hatred had new fire for her. Green crackled round her, almost like an aura. Her emotions ran wild and Regina's fear wasn't enough to stand up.

"You're here?"

"Your cruse broke," Maleficent said. Gathering green fire in front of her lazily, as if she was pulling the wings from a butterfly, she studied Regina and Mulan. "You're keeping different company and this is a new look for you."

"Getting home was complicated."

"It wasn't for me." Passing the bright green fire from one hand to the other, Maleficent tilted her head. "Funny how one moment, I'm trapped, in a dark, lonely mine, more dead than alive and then I'm back in the ruins of my castle, alone. My pet wasn't waiting for me."

Regina's curse hadn't reached to simpler creatures, like unicorns. Maleficent's pet must have fled when time began to move again.

"Nothing was, because nothing is all you chose to leave me with."

"You would have done the same."

Maleficent tossed a green fireball into the trees behind Regina and the explosion that followed blasted heat across her back.

"I would not. I never would have cast the dark curse because I knew what it does. That kind of magic leaves holes so deep they can't be filled. I was content to live in quiet. I had my dear pet and I would have spent the rest of my days as a hermit in my castle. You did let me live a solitary life, I suppose you think I ought to be grateful?" Pity mixed with loathing, both straining her voice.

"I needed you."

"You needed a beast, my dear." Maleficent clucked her tongue, disappointed. "And to think I once called you friend. If I had cast the curse, I would not have given you a life of pain." She called up more fire and this time it burned in her eyes, streaming from the corners like tears of flame. "No matter. Pain is easier to inflict in this realm, much more fitting, don't you think?"

Maleficent didn't have to move her hands to cast. This fire erupted from her chest, rushing outward like green lightning. Returning to this realm had given her strength, and perhaps the loneliness had been enough to push her into real madness. Regina knew revenge, but what hungered in Maleficent's eyes went past it.

Mulan tried to shove her back, ready to take the lightning for her, but Regina couldn't let her. She'd taken enough from everyone. Maleficent's hatred was her creation; her demon.

Moving herself through Mulan with magic, Regina braced herself, ready to be blown into the forest. If she was hurt badly enough, perhaps Maleficent would depart, leaving Mulan just enough time to get Emma. Regina might live, if she was lucky.

She wanted to live through this, somehow. The baby deserved a chance at life. Throwing up her arms, she thought of a shield.

Magic roared around her, licking her hair. Heat scorched the inside of her nose, making her choke. Her vision blurred through green to white and the exposed skin of her face held her ground. Green fire parted around her, sizzling into the trees.

She'd blocked it.

"Get down," Regina cried to Mulan.

Fire blasted towards them again, pouring from Maleficent's chest and shoulders. Once again, it washed over her. The heat stung, but Regina held her ground. She shouldn't have been able to defend against that kind of attack at all. Maleficent held nothing back, kept no reserves and she had offensive abilities bolstered by hatred that Regina should not have been able to fend off.

She'd never had much defence but now it was almost easy. The barrier began around her and she expanded it, forcing it outward to protect Mulan as well. The air stank, sickly sweet with magic and smoke as the trees began to burn.

"You're different," Maleficent said. Stirring the earth at Regina's feet, she drew it up in a cyclone around her. "You never did bother protecting yourself."

"There wasn't a point." Regina's response was a whisper, swallowed by the hissing around her. Each bit of earth struck her shield, wearing it down. It she'd just been protecting herself it might have been easier, but she couldn't let Maleficent hurt Mulan.

Still swirling the earth around Regina with one hand, Maleficent cast fire with the other, pounding on Regina's shield. Weakening, Regina put more of herself into the barrier. Her knees ached, then trembled.

Mulan slowly regained her feet, standing directly behind her, almost as if she was trying to help by making the shield need to protect a smaller space. Something wet ran down across her lips. Sweat broke over her skin, cold even within the flame.

Regina stumbled and Mulan caught her waist, holding her up. Defence was so much harder than angrily attacking. Maleficent knew that. She gathered burning trees, pulling them closer and closer so they threatened to collapsed on top of Regina's shield.

"Emma," Regina whispered. Repeating her name over and over, Regina reached for the wedding ring she wasn't yet accustomed to having on her finger. Turning it on her hand, she drew on her love for Emma, reinforcing her faltering shield just as the first tree fell.

Burning branches cracked overhead and it fell to the side. The second bounced off the shield, forcing Regina to expend even more energy to keep it up. Mulan took more of her weight, holding her tighter through her armour.

"Emma, please. Be careful."

Blue smoke tarnished the sky and then she was there. Emma wasn't dressed for battle, but she drew her sword from the scabbard at her waist and pointed it at Maleficent.

"Regina?"

"I'm all right. She's dangerous, Emma."

Maleficent hissed at the sword, recoiling back. "You. I remember you."

With her momentarily distracted, the cyclone of earth fell back. Dropping the shield, Regina called her own fire, sending it at Maleficent while she glared at Emma. Purple slammed into her leg, searing through her dress.

Maleficent's wail of pain became laughter. "You, and the queen?" She glanced from one to the other, and for a moment the beast reared in her eyes. If she shifted, Regina didn't know how they'd fight her off.

"Get away from her!" Emma's threat made Maleficent laugh all the harder.

Maleficent studied them both. "How sweet."

Turning her assault on Emma, Maleficent used the trees against her. Branches clawed at Emma like grasping hands. Emma threw up her own shield, using the sword to focus her power. Tree branches scratched and splintered.

Mulan darted from behind Regina, going for Maleficent with her sword. She didn't know how foolish that was. Maleficent turned her head and spat fire at her. Mulan turned it with her sword but the force of the flame knocked her back into the trees.

Emma threw fire at her and Regina sent her own but Maleficent had her own shield up. Blue and purple flame flicked around her and faded. Burning trees tore themselves from the earth, rising into the air to circle above Maleficent.

"You did this," Maleficent hissed. "You trapped me and killed me. Do you know how much it hurts to die? To never be allowed to rest because your friend, your only friend, bound you to life when nothing was left?"

Regina knew madness; had flirted with it much of her life. Maleficent had embraced her darkness, her madness in a way she never had in life. Fear grabbed her heart, strangling it with cold fingers.

"Perhaps you need to find out."

Teleporting away, she dropped the smouldering trees she'd been holding aloft, slamming them all against Regina's shield. Emma dropped her sword, pouring her own strength in to reinforce Regina's and keep the barrier. With Emma's help she could almost do it. Regina turned away the first three, but the fourth crashed through, hitting her and shoving Mulan back. The impact sent her sprawling forward into the dirt. She'd slowed it enough to keep them both alive, but the numbness flared into pain all down her back.

Blackness took her, sucking her down.

Thick with smoke, the air stung her throat. She couldn't breathe. Dirt and blood filled her mouth and she coughed, then spat it out, struggling to lift her head.

"Regina!"

Emma grabbed her, turning her over so she stared up at the sky. Leaves blurred into the clouds, all of it messy and faded, as if the colours were running together. Coughing again, Regina turned to the side to spit up more blood and dirt. Emma's magic poured into her like a transfusion, easing the pain in her chest.

"I think you broke a few ribs and you definitely have a concussion."

"Emma-"

"The baby's fine," Emma said. Tears glimmered in her eyes. "I can feel her, she's fine. You're pretty beat up."

Dirt darkened Emma's face and the cut on her chin bled down her neck. Emma's magic healed the fuzziness of her vision, most likely softening the concussion that had been making everything double.

"She's all right?"

"Yeah," Emma promised. "I, I guess I didn't know I could feel you two separate from each other, but she's here, with you and she's fine. She's strong."

"Like you."

"Like her mother."

Her pain meant nothing. Emma's love washed over her, easing it all away. Trying to relax and let herself be healed, Regina reached for Emma's cheek. Her hand missed, but Emma caught it.

"You're okay."

"Why wouldn't I be? You're here."

Emma kissed her filthy hand. "You hit your head, hard."

"You're mending it."

"I don't think I can do it all. Broken bones are hard."

"You might need help." Regina struggled to swallow, dirt left a metallic taste in her mouth. "I'm tired."

"Mulan went to get horses. I don't want to teleport you and make a mistake."

"You'll have to-"

"Hey, hey." Emma kissed her, so soft even with blistering agony every time her chest moved. "Stay awake. I think I've stopped the bleeding, inside and outside, and your concussion, but I can't get your ribs to stay together. Maybe I'm out of juice or something."

"Bone takes time. Ribs keep moving. They're difficult. "

Better than any painkillers, Emma's magic coursed through her, dulling the pain with affection.

"Your lungs didn't collapse."

"You saved me."

"I teleported out of a council meeting, knocked over my chair and probably have a lot of explaining to do. I felt you. I knew you needed me." Emma's surprise had a hint of pride. "You called me."

"You are your parents' daughter, Emma. Saving is in your blood."

Even exhausted, numb and definitely intoxicated with magic, she was safe now. Fear, that gripping terror Maleficent raised within her didn't matter, because Emma was here. Emma had her. Such a strange feeling, safety. Regina almost couldn't remember when last she'd felt truly safe. Maybe she never had.

"Stay awake."

"Maleficent-"

"She's going to be a problem, isn't she?"

"She was the dragon you killed in the caves."

"Great." Emma sighed. "Do we have any other enemies I need to know about?"

"Many."

"Hey, Regina." Emma didn't dare shake her, but she slapped her face, keeping her awake. Perhaps her head injury was worse than a simple concussion. A concussion should have been easily healed with Emma's magic, but through the fog of Emma's magic within her, her head still pounded.

Skull fracture. She had been hit by a tree.

It would heal eventually, or the Blue Fairy would be able to...

_Stay awake_.

Something shifted.

Moved.

"Emma?"

"I'm here."

It moved again. So tiny, like a bubble breaking inside of her or the motion of a fingertip. The baby wasn't hurt. She was strong. She'd been in Regina's magic when they fought, bathed in Emma's now while Emma healed her. She-

She moved.

"Emma!"

"What? What?"

"What did it feel like when Henry moved for the first time?"

"You want that now?"

"Please."

Emma wiped blood from Regina's face, ignoring the trail on her own neck. "Like a butterfly trapped inside me hitting the sides, or a fish. I called him fish a lot."

"Nudging?"

"Yeah, I guess. Weird, like someone being able to touch you, inside."

Sighing, Regina ignored sensation of hot iron around her chest. It wasn't important. "Emma."

"What is it?"

"I feel her."

"You do?"

"Maybe I needed the rest of me to be numb, or to be still." Regina followed Emma's hand until their entwined fingers sat over the baby, on top Regina's muddy armour. "She's in there."

"And she's okay."

She couldn't possibly know what had happened and she must have shared the adrenaline rush Regina could still taste in her mouth. The baby was safe now too, wrapped in all the love her mothers' had for her. She'd made herself known, magically and physically. She wasn't just part Regina's imagination or occasionally difficult parasite, she was a person, real and unique.

"I feel her." Now that she knew, the bubbling nudged her again, and again. Was she frightened? Happy? Could she feel Emma? Did she have any idea how much she was loved?

"Maybe she's just saying hello."

"You called Henry 'fish'?"

"Yeah. He felt like a fish. He swam around a lot. He didn't like to be still." Emma brushed dirt from Regina's face, healing the little scrapes on her skin. "Maybe you just had to give her a chance to move when you weren't thinking so hard about her."

It probably helped that she was so tired parts of her were numb. What she could feel was that much more important.

"I don't want to call her fish."

"You don't have to. Maybe she's a frog."

"Emma-"

"She's all right, and that's what matters right now, okay? The baby's all right and you're all right." Emma kissed her and stood up, disappearing from the part of Regina's vision that was clear.

"We should leave her armour on to support her ribs," Mulan said. When had she come back? A man was with her, Philip, the prince she and Aurora had found. He looked concerned too, just like Emma when his face appeared over hers.

"Mulan and I are going to lift you up to Emma on the horse. It'll hurt."

Regina smiled at him. "I'll be fine. Emma's not the best with horses."

"If you can stay awake, you can steer."

"It's a horse, not a Volkswagen. You don't steer."

"I'll count to three," Phillip said, easing his hands beneath her arms. "One, two-"

Lost in her cry of pain, three went unheard. Once Regina was standing it wasn't quite the same white hot agony as when her broken ribs ground together. Emma reached down and Mulan and Phillip helped her up. Tears had broken her control by the time she was in the saddle with Emma.

"Remind me to stay away from vengeful friends for awhile."

Emma held her close, not too tight. "Will she leave us alone?"

Holding Emma's left arm against her, Regina tried to breathe as shallowly as she could. "I doubt it. I trapped her in a dragon's form, you killed her and I let her rise again as a wraith so Hook, Tamara and Greg could do whatever they did to her."

"Does she want to hurt us? Kill us?"

Even with the horse at a walk, each step brought a fresh jolt of pain. Emma's magic still vibrated through her, dulling her nerves so she could stay conscious.

"I don't know. She has history with Aurora and her mother, perhaps she can-" Regina gasped and bit her lip. Emma soothed the pain, but the combination of magic and adrenaline made her head even more foggy. "Why don't you think we can teleport?"

"I've only done it once by myself and I might screw it up now when you're already hurt."

"But you trust yourself on a horse?"

"You've been training this one. You said she was trustworthy."

"Dulcinea?" Had she not recognised her?

"Mulan said she was the most gentle. We'll be back soon."

"You could just-"

"I spent a lot of magic trying to get you away from the bitch in the woods-"

"Maleficent."

"And trying to keep you out of pain is taking a lot. If the Blue Fairy can't fix you right away, I want to have some left if I have to try."

Regina finally made her eyes focus on Dulcinea's black ears in front of her. It was easier than trying to figure out where they were or how far away the castle was. "Cracked ribs will hardly kill me."

"But they hurt, don't they?"

"Yes."

"Then let me take care of you, even if it's just for a little while."

Thinking about that, how strange an idea it was, Regina turned her head to rest it closer to Emma's. "You're good at it."

"You're just saying that because I've got you high on the magical equivalent of morphine."

Even the slightest tightening of her chest to laugh hurt, so she stopped herself when she smiled.

"You're sweet."

"I'm in love. It's ruined me." Emma rambled then, telling Regina old stories of carrying Henry in prison. How she used to talk to him when she was in her cell. She hadn't told him fairy tales then, because none had been right. No one told stories about girls having kids in prison, so Emma told him stories about fish, about birds and cats. Whatever she could think of, she told him, because that was all the time they were ever going to have together and she didn't want it to be empty.

The bustling castle brimmed with energy as they returned. Snow, David and the Blue Fairy met them at the gates, surrounded by armed guards, just in case they were followed.

Mulan slipped from the saddle and reported to the queen. "We were ambushed. Maleficent tried to kill us both, but Regina and then Emma drove her off. Regina took a bad blow from a falling tree. Emma tried to heal her, but there are broken bones."

"Which are a little out of my league," Emma said. She carefully guided Regina's leg over the horse, so David, Phillip and Snow could help Regina down from Dulcinea. "I stopped the bleeding."

"I'm sure you did well," the Blue Fairy said, circling Emma's head like a blue globe of light. "You are also bleeding."

"It's nothing, Regina first."

The Blue Fairy looked to Snow, waiting for her to nod. The heir to the throne was most important, after all. Regina tried not to cry out as Emma lowered her to David and Phillip's arms, but her ribs were like being stabbed in the chest.

Snow caught her hand. "It's all right now. You're safe." Emma's whole family were rescuers.

"Take her to the chapel," Snow ordered.

Emma walked alongside the makeshift stretcher, holding Regina's hand and sending more of her magic into her. The stone ceiling of the corridor gave way to the high ceiling of the chapel, where the fairies had set up their home. Several of them, all different shades of pink, yellow and green came down to see what the commotion was as Regina was laid on the floor.

Mulan and Phillip carefully removed her armour and Mulan spared the leather when she could. When the chest was lifted off, she must have grabbed Emma's hand, because Emma's eyes widened in sympathy.

The Blue Fairy flew over her body, surveying her injuries. "Several broken ribs and a skull fracture. This will be difficult to heal without fairy dust."

"Can I do it?" Emma begged over her.

"You haven't had the training in bones. They need to be set very carefully or they'll heal crooked. We will accelerate your training, of course, but we shall need fairy dust for the princess consort."

Regina had nearly forgotten that was her. Fairies were always so formal.

"Get the dwarves," Snow ordered someone from the room.

"How much do you need? David asked.

"A few diamonds worth."

"Someone might have some."

"They'll never-"

Snow interrupted. "They will for their queen. Ask our refugees if anyone has any diamonds with they. They will be repaid threefold when our mines reopen."

"I should have gotten you a diamond engagement ring," Emma joked. "The family ring isn't useful."

"I told you, broken ribs won't kill me."

"And a skull fracture?"

"I thought it was a headache," Regina protested, pulling Emma's hand closer. All she wanted was her, the rest of them were just here.

"Princess-" The Blue Fairy started to say something, but Snow quieted her with a look, then waved her aside. They whispered, then the fairy returned, hovering with the others above Regina.

Someone, Regina recognised Aurora when she spoke, arrived with diamonds, two earrings and a necklace. "We found these. Will they be enough?"

The Blue Fairy looked them over and nodded. "Made into to dust they should be enough."

Snow brought Grumpy back and he ground them by hand, carefully crushing them in one of their enchanted grinders. It was the work of moments, but each breath hurt, effectively dragging out time. Everyone around her was doing something, so Emma held her hand and waited.

Fairy dust tingled, like fresh snowflakes, or tiny drops of rain. Her ribs itched, then ached as they knit back together. The pain in her head faded through a dull ache until it was only a fog that held her. Trusting that she didn't need the last of her magic for Regina's injuries, Emma changed her clothes, using magic to banish the sweat and blood-stained tunic she'd worn beneath her armour.

Regina took her first deep breath without pain and smiled up at Emma. "See? I'm fine."

"You need rest," the Blue Fairy said, firm and almost scolding. "You should be in bed."

"That's never been a problem for you, has it my dear?" Flirting with Emma in front of the fairies was not the wisest of choices, but Emma was her wife, it had to be allowed.

"I'll teleport her upstairs," Emma said as people moved for the stretcher again. "I'm sure I can handle that far."

Snow and the Blue Fairy were still whispering when Emma's magic surrounded her and swept them both away. The mirror behind Snow had a strange fog in it, almost as if something had been watching the whole thing. Regina forgot about it when Emma had her in bed, fussing and climbing in next to her to hold her while she slept.

* * *

Maleficent nearly dropped one of the last mirrors in her castle when it spoke to her. She'd never been fond of enchanted objects, trusting her own powers was much more sensible.

A face appeared in the mirror, blue and grey, yet male and nearly human.

"What do you want?"

"I have information."

"What makes you think that I want it?" She sat back in her chair, waiting for the mirror to prove itself useful before she destroyed it.

"I know how Regina was able to defend against your magic."

Pulling the mirror so close she could see her breath fog the glass, Maleficent hissed. "How?"

"True love."

"Impossible, she lost her true love. She turned her back to goodness because she couldn't bring him back." The mirror lied, just like everything else. Preparing to toss it across the room, Maleficent stopped as it yelled at her.

"She loves the saviour. Snow White and Prince Charming's daughter, the one who broke her curse."

"How can that be so?"

"They were wed last week. I observed it myself."

Regina, who'd once sworn off all love as weakness, was not only wed, but to her true love. How far things had changed.

"Marriage does not imply true love."

"Regina saved Emma from a nasty accident in the mines with true love's kiss. Their feelings for each other are as real as the rings on your hand." The mirror perhaps did have something useful after all.

"I could have found that out from any peasant in Snow White's kingdom. What would you try to bargain?"

"First I will name my price," the man in the mirror said. "I am trapped by Regina and only her death can free me."

"Her death?" Maleficent drummed her nails on the table in front of her. "I was planning on that anyway."

"She will die?"

"Painfully."

The man contemplated that, and nodded. "It is not just true love that made her strong enough to resist you."

"I'm listening."

"The former queen is pregnant, with the child of the saviour, her true love. The Blue Fairy told Queen Snow White that the child of true love twice over is very powerful indeed."

"Even if it grows inside Regina?" Maleficent lifted her hand and examined the long nails that became her talons. They needed sharpening.

"Regina's heart may be black, but her love for the saviour is pure. Their child is already considered to be of great importance to the fairies."

"The fairies want her baby?"

"The diamonds in the mine below the kingdom are dark, possibly corrupted."

Maleficent laughed to wards the high ceiling of her lonely castle. "Of course they are, I planted the darkness there myself."

"To what end?"

She waved his question away. "Tell me about Regina and this Emma the saviour. When will the child be born?"

"In the winter, I've heard."

"A winter baby," Maleficent repeated. "It would be terrible were something to happen to Regina, That poor child, losing her mother."

"I don't know what she'd do," the mirror man agreed. "She couldn't be raised in Snow White's castle. Snow White might let her be corrupted. She'll need somewhere strong, a mother who won't let her get hurt."

She hadn't considered having a child. Losing her dear little pet had broken what was left of her heart, but this was no ordinary child. The daughter of Regina and the saviour who'd broken her curse could be incredibly powerful if shaped in the right ways.

"Tell me more and we'll discuss how you can get what you want."


	3. three

"Mulan's already left on patrol," Aurora said when Emma arrived at her door. "They left just after breakfast."

Emma nodded. She'd seen Ruby off that morning and made her promise to be careful in case Maleficent came back.

"Actually, I was looking for you."

"Oh?" Aurora tilted her head, curious. "What can I do for you, Princess?"

"Are you going to curtsy too?"

"I can if you'd like." Aurora's little smile suggested she knew exactly how to curtsy.

"Please don't." Emma looked past Aurora to the empty room behind her. "Can I come in?"

"Of course." Aurora moved aside and allowed Emma in.

It was a smaller room than Emma and Regina's, but still beautifully constructed. The stonework had been intricately carved with griffins and lions and there were hooks for tapestries, if they ever had any again. Mulan's things were on the bench by the window, and it seemed Aurora had the other side of the room. Phillip had been bunking in the barracks, with many of the soldiers, guards and hunters. He and Aurora were some of the least pretentious royalty Emma had met, and that comforted her. Not everyone had to curtsy to her. The double bed in the middle of the room had been made neatly. Emma wondered if those were military corners, or if Aurora was a rare princess who could make her own bed. Regina insisted on it, and Emma was starting to get the corners of the sheets the way Regina liked them, but it was an ongoing struggle. Regina was still in it this morning, so she was safe.

"How's Regina?"

"Resting but complaining about it, so she's probably fine."

"Mulan said her injuries were quite serious."

"Maleficent dropped a tree on her."

Aurora's wry smile grew. "Mulan told that Regina selflessly protected her from the witch. She would not speak praise without cause."

"Mulan and Phillip were very helpful getting her back."

"You've thanked them."

Emma sighed and shook her head. "Did I thank them enough?"

Aurora offered her a chair and down across from her. "Yes. Ruling is difficult for you, isn't it?"

"I didn't exactly grow up being a princess."

"You were always a princess, perhaps your other identity is the one that was forced upon you."

Emma blinked, trying to take that in. She'd been no one, now she was the centre of everything. "How do you do it?"

"My kingdom is in ruins, what's left of it after the Dark Curse and Cora's evil is controlled by Maleficent from her fortress in the Forbidden Mountains. Few of my people remain alive and it is doubtful any of them are free." Aurora folded her hands in her lap. "I am fortunate that Phillip and Mulan are safe and that we have found sanctuary in your castle. Perhaps, someday, when this kingdom is strong again, Phillip and I will return to ours."

Emma almost wanted to hug her, but hugs didn't seem to be a royalty thing. "I'm sorry."

"Kingdoms rise and fall. I had hoped Phillip and I would rule together, and we may yet. We survived the curse, Cora and the wraith."

"All things are possible," Emma said, thinking of the seer who'd helped her believe in herself. "If there's anything I can do."

"Do not fret, Emma. If I can, I will save my kingdom. Until I do, I will help yours to grow strong, however I can."

There was the regal selflessness Emma struggled so with. She didn't mind doing the princess thing, but she never knew what she was supposed to do. When she was sheriff, she'd had laws to follow, but now her mother was the law and that was a whole new ballgame.

"Thank you."

"It's my pleasure." Aurora's smile held genuine joy. At least they had allies. For all the enemies they kept making, at least they made allies with equal speed. "If you did not come for Mulan, how may I help?"

"I need to know about Maleficent."

Aurora took a breath, holding her gaze level with Emma's. "I'm afraid I know little about her. She's a wicked fairy, not human, and has great power. She may have invented the sleeping curse. She cast it on my mother many years ago, and on me, shortly before the Dark Curse was cast on the realm."

"Your mother beat her?"

"She was able to trick Maleficent and arranged to be rescued by my father, breaking the sleeping curse. Maleficent was furious, and remained in her fortress for most of my life, plotting her revenge. When Phillip and I were to be married, she emerged again, angry that we did not invite her to the betrothal dinner."

"She cursed you over a dinner invite?"

"Royal occasions are the heart of a realm. To not be invited to something that the entire kingdom will celebrate is the highest insult. All were invited to your wedding, were they not?"

Emma hadn't thought about that. She'd been thinking of Regina, not how many people were watching them or that her wedding was a state occasion. "Should we have invited her?"

"No." Aurora's smile softened Emma's worries. "Maleficent is a great power in my kingdom. When she was not invited to my mother's christening, after she had been asked for help in the conception of my mother, she took it as the highest of insults. It set off a feud that continued until the Dark Curse made it irrelevant."

"So your grandparents pissed her off."

"Yes."

"And she wasn't over it?"

"Etiquette may seem foolish, but it's based in history. If we cannot trust our neighbours to follow the rules of society, than how can we trust them to be good neighbours?"

Emma pondered that. She must have missed it in the not-Princess schools she'd attended. "Thanks."

"Maleficent was not always evil. There was much to her history with my grandparents that I do not know. My grandmother would never speak of it, and my grandfather went silent at the mention of her name. My mother suspected many things, but she was never able to tell me of them. I have not seen her since I was struck with the sleeping curse and I fear she must be dead."

Emma reached across and squeezed her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Thank you." Aurora patted her hand kindly. "I wish I could be of more help. My mother often wondered if there was a way we could get through to Maleficent, A way to make peace. Perhaps you need not kill her."

"I already did that once."

"If I remember anything more, I will tell you. I would be willing to assist in your negotiations, if I could. Maleficent and I have met before. Perhaps if I came with you, her anger would be divided."

Emma wasn't sure even dividing it between two would be enough, but if it kept Regina safe, she was willing to try anything. "I don't think I dare for awhile. My mother's going on a trip round the kingdom."

"A royal progress."

"That. And I'm-"

"Going to rule in her place."

Emma dropped her gaze to the floor. "Yeah."

"You'll do well."

"Thanks." She tried to sound grateful. Everyone kept telling her it would be fine; that it was only a few weeks, but Emma couldn't even believe it when Regina said that she wouldn't be a complete and utter failure as a ruler.

"Shall we go down to council, your highness?"

Wincing like she always did, Emma waved Aurora before her. She only had four days left before her parents left and she had much to learn before anyone asked her to sit the throne.

"Being reminded you are the princess is hardly a slur."

"It feels fake. I don't really do anything." Emma reminded herself to smile as they passed everyone in the castle corridors. Aurora did it so easily. Why did Emma feel like such an impostor?

"You're helping us plan a plumbing project to cut down on disease and make your kingdom one of the cleanest in the land. You're also trying to bring water to all of your people. Are these not important?"

As much as Emma missed tap water, it was hard to believe that books of translated Roman designs could be made into anything workable for the people. "It looks like a bunch of scribbles to me."

Aurora stopped her and put her hand on the wall. "I have never lived in a castle where water came from the walls nor seen a bath that can be filled without a small army of servants. If these scribbles can do that, then that is surely magic."

Emma had to smile. She still couldn't imagine growing up in a castle where you never flushed a toilet and only bathed once a month because you were rich. She'd had some times when she was filthy and living rough, but it was nothing like what a peasant would spend their whole life in here. Even in a fairy tale world, it was dirty and cold, and the snow was coming. The leaves were already falling and there had been frost in the valleys. There was so much to do and she had to do it. If she didn't, people would die. She had barely trusted herself to be responsible for Henry last year, how could she now take responsibility for the kingdom? Maybe Aurora was right. She'd do it because she had to, because it was her burden that she'd been born too, even if she'd been raised to be someone else, Princess Emma was whom she'd always been meant to be.

Once they were in the council chamber, Emma took her seat at her mother's right hand, took a breath to centre herself and reached for the wooden beads she'd used to learn magic. Maybe if she kept turning them, if she tried to be the princess a hundred times a day, she'd get it.

* * *

The little girl brought her food up from the kitchens twice before Regina truly recognised her. She'd tried to argue that she was fine. She'd been healed with magic and she felt completely normal, perhaps slightly lightheaded, but no one listened to her. Emma's eyes still went wide with fear when they spoke of Maleficent. Regina didn't know what to do. She couldn't just sacrifice herself because she had something to lose. She loved too much to give anything up now. She'd never wanted to kill Maleficent, and it had stung to send Emma down to do it. If Henry's life hadn't been at risk, perhaps her friend could have lived.

Lying in bed drove her slowly crazy, and it had only been a day. Emma had fussed all of yesterday and it had been an indulgence to take Emma from her duties and steal another day with her. Emma was back to ruling today, so Regina had been alone most of the morning. It would have been fine if she actually needed to rest, but she didn't.

"Child, remain a moment," she said when the girl arrived with her lunch. Leaving the bed, she put her feet on the floor. When her knees were weak, even shaky, Regina frowned. This was what came from resting.

"Yes, your highness." The girl curtsied low, staring politely at the floor in front of Regina's feet.

"You are called Grace, are you not?"

"Yes, your highness."

"Shouldn't you be with your father?"

The girl didn't speak until Regina crouched down into her field of vision. She even smiled, trying to be less terrifying. She was only in her nightshift, she couldn't be that scary.

"He's here, your highness. He's working for the queen."

What would Snow what with Jefferson and his powers?

"So you live here?"

"I work for the kitchens, your highness. I'm learning to cook."

"I bet you're an excellent cook."

"Thank you, your highness."

She'd gone years without being the queen but plenty of people in Storybrooke had feared her. This ingrained terror was new again, as it had been when she'd been freshly crowned. "Did you make my lunch?"

"The soup, highness. I cut the turnips."

The lack of variety in the Enchanted Forest's vegetables made one truly nostalgic for the supermarket, cursed or not. "I bet it's delicious."

"Thank you, high-"

Regina cut her off with a wave. "One or two 'your highnesses' is enough dear, thank you. I hope you enjoy living in the castle."

"Yes, your-" Grace stopped herself. "Yes."

"You'd better hurry back to the kitchen. I wouldn't want you to get into trouble."

Grace curtsied again, the clumsily adorable motion of a girl who'd grown up in the wilderness, and Regina smiled at her. Jefferson had his daughter back and that brought her some peace.

She'd been brought soup, bread, cheese and an apple. Apples were just out of harvest so they'd be in all her meals for many months. Maybe living without supermarkets would be acceptable, at least until spring when stores were lean and the snow was still melting.

Since no one but servants and Emma would see her, Regina pulled a thick woollen cardigan on over her nightshift that went down to her knees. It wasn't at all regal, but the stone walls of the castle were cool today and it was not yet late enough in the year for a fire. She took her tray of food to the small table and resigned herself to eating alone. She was capable of taking her meals with everyone else in the Great Hall, but perhaps it would be easier to remain apart for a time, while the threat of Maleficent to the kingdom faded from the immediate thoughts of everyone around her. She was neither queen, nor mayor. There was no reason to prove she was unbowed by the threat. Lunch without Emma would be lonely anyway, as only if Ruby or Mulan was there to act as a buffer, would anyone else eat with her.

The knock on her door nearly startled her spoon out of her hand.

"Regina?" The soft voice obviously feared she was asleep.

"Come in." She left her chair, putting her napkin on the seat.

The heavy oak door swung in and Belle's head peered round the door. Relieved that Regina was standing and appeared to be in good health, Belle smiled more brightly. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine." Perhaps the response lacked conviction, but she'd hardly spoken to the young woman since she'd been freed from prison and she'd hardly have the knack for reading through her that Emma did. "I apologise for my state of undress. I wasn't expecting company."

"I can go," Belle said quickly, backing towards the corridor.

"No, no. Please."

"I know we're not really friends, but I heard that you were injured and I thought you might be bored cooped up in bed." Belle held out her hands, revealing the three books in them. "I thought you might like something to read."

"Thank you for your concern." Regina took the books from her and glanced at the titles on their spines. "These are from Rumpelstiltskin's library?"

"He won't mind." Belle answered with the kind of ease that suggested Rumpelstiltskin had his true love back. "He's always been a little fond of you and he's glad you were seriously hurt."

There was one book of defensive magic, most likely a joke from Rumpelstiltskin because he had always found her lack of interest in the defensive arts short-sighted. Another was a book of poetry, something whimsical that Belle must have liked. The last was in an ancient tongue and the lettering was obscure. She'd need a translation spell.

"I'm sorry about the last one," Belle said. "It's a beautiful story, but the only copy we have is in an ancient Saxon tongue. Rumpel assured me you could do a translation spell, but if you're not up to it I'm sure Emma can cast one for you when she gets out of council."

Council meetings dragged on through dinner lately, but it was sweet of Belle to think of her at all, much less know how boring bed rest was.

"Are you on your way now?"

"Yes. We're spending more time on the aqueducts today. The fairies think we might be able to have them running before the snow falls. We'll have to try to build up our stores of water and run many of the pipes underground so they don't freeze solid in the winter." Belle paused, stopping herself from rambling on about plumbing. Apparently she had quite a mind for the planning of cities. Emma was always impressed with what she came up with. "Sorry, plumbing's a little dull to anyone but me and I've been told I ramble."

"I've been alone all morning," Regina said. "You may ramble about whatever you like."

"Alone?"

"Emma had business."

"It's hard being with someone with so much responsibility, isn't it?"

She wouldn't have thought of what Rumpel did as responsibilities, but the conversation was pleasant and it was nice to have company so Regina attempted to be friendly. "Yes, Emma has many duties."

"I think that's why it's ended up being a blessing that I read so much. Rumpel's always working on something and when I read, we can share each other's company without annoying each other."

She would love to be able to sit across the room from Emma while she worked on the endless tasks for kingdom. Sometimes Emma brought scrolls up to their room and read them by candlelight in bed. She missed her contacts and though she could have used magic to make herself glasses, Emma preferred playing with the script on the scroll until it was big enough to read easily. She'd sit in bed and read the large letters until long after Regina was asleep. It wasn't quite the same.

"That sounds lovely." Her own sincerity surprised her. The baby made her sentimental. Conscious that she was only wearing a long sweater over her thin linen shift that revealed the rounding of her belly, Regina pulled her sweater closer. Rumpel would have no claim on her child and Belle was the innocent she seemed, but without Emma at her side it was difficult to speak of the baby to others. Was Belle that observant? Would she say something? If the Blue Fairy knew, perhaps it was already all over the kingdom.

She'd paused too long. Belle shifted her weight, as if she were deciding how best to politely leave without offending Regina.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm taking you from your meal."

"No, no. My mind drifts more lately than it did."

"Considering you're recovering from a head injury, that's entirely normal."

Was there something else behind her smile? Belle seemed too accommodating, too happy to be discussing Regina's concussion.

"You heard about that?"

"Rumpel hears everything."

So she knew about the baby. Belle lived with Rumpelstiltskin ,after all. Perhaps they kept few secrets from each other. Did it really bother Regina if she knew? Belle was harmless and Maleficent's reappearance had just made her uneasy about everything.

"Do you want to eat before it gets cold? I can sit with you for bit, if you'd like."

As much as having anyone watch her eat was a little strange, having the company would be pleasant. Regina nodded and offered the other chair.

"Have you eaten?"

"They've been just bringing out food to the council meetings."

No wonder Emma had been so exhausted. At least eating on the trail was a pleasant break from patrol and the company friendly. Regina doubted anyone in the council meetings had much time to smile or joke.

"How are you really feeling?" Belle asked, leaning closer as if in conspiracy.

That had to be about the baby. She shouldn't have been so surprised by everyone's interest, no one had been able to get pregnant during the curse and no children had been born in Storybrooke until Emma had broken the curse enough for Alexandra to enter the world. Perhaps everyone was excited because this was Emma's child, and everyone adored Emma.

Was she supposed to launch into a long diatribe about the discomforts of pregnancy? What did Belle really want from her?

"Sore."

"I've never been in a battle with a witch, but I imagine it wears on you."

That wasn't it. She had a new kind of soreness, almost as if she'd pulled all the muscles between her chest and pelvis or they were misaligned somehow, and her breasts were a constant source of complaint. Emma adored how round they'd gotten, but they seemed acutely conscious of every movement Regina made and she missed bras.

"Are we still talking about my injuries?"

Belle sat back, almost apologetic. "I'm sorry."

"Did Rumpelstiltskin tell you?"

"When he came home from Qin, he spent an extraordinary amount of time in a section of his library he usually ignores. He has books on everything, even childbirth, and he's never read them. It's not something we talk about so I knew it wasn't about us. I asked him and he told me that Emma had gotten you pregnant."

"He did?"

"I think it's marvellous."

"You do?"

"Of course. There's something fantastic about it. You didn't even know you loved each other, yet it was enough to make life. True love and a baby. What more could you want?"

Regina forced her hands to remain above the table, even though she wanted to protect her child from everything. Belle wasn't a threat, in fact, she seemed genuinely happy, and not just for Emma.

"Why are you being nice to me?"

"Because no one's really a monster. Not even those who go around calling themselves evil and dark."

How did anyone have that much capacity for forgiveness? Regina had locked her up, so had Rumpel, yet she loved the latter and seemed entire capable of forgiving the former.

Regina had to ask. "You believe so?"

"I think we all the capacity for good and evil, and the choices we make are coloured not only by our lives, but how we're perceived. When I stopped seeing Rumpel as a monster, he stopped seeing himself as the monster reflected in my eyes. I know it must be hard for you to be here, surrounded by people who still see the Evil Queen. I'd like to help, if I can. Emma loves you. Mulan and Ruby both speak highly of you. I trust them. They see the real you. If you'll let me, I'd like to know the real you too."

The ease with which Belle spoke surprised Regina. How did one have her heart so open without risking so much pain? Did she not fear it? Had her life been so different that she had no fear?

"You would."

"Yes, I would." Belle extended her hand. "I don't think we've properly met. I'm Belle."

Extending her hand felt foolish, but Regina did it. "Regina."

"There we go. Now we can be friends."

Just like that? It was that easy?

"Thank you." She couldn't think of anything else to say. Dumbstruck, Regina returned Belle's smile as she stood to leave.

"I really have to get to council, but I'll see you soon, all right?"

Was she going to visit again? Did she mean at meals? Rumpel and Belle usually ate separately, though Belle had been with the rest more as she became more involved in the running of the kingdom.

"All right," Regina agreed. She stood, seeing Belle to the door. Belle waited there for a moment, smiling. Regina owed her something. Something personal.

"Wonderful," Regina said, tripping over the word.

"I don't follow."

"You asked me how I really felt." Looking down was safer than looking at Belle, and there was a hint of a curve to her belly, even from her viewpoint. "Sometimes, I can feel the baby move inside of me and it's wonderful. When she does, I can't think of anything else."

In the pause before Belle spoke, Regina rebuked herself. She shouldn't have said anything. That was the kind of thing only Emma would understand. No one wanted to know how happy she was. She was the Evil Queen. She didn't deserve-

"I think that's appropriate. I imagine it would be such a beautiful surprise nothing else could possibly matter in that moment." Belle nodded to her, still smiling. "I'm glad you're feeling better, and that the baby makes you so happy. I'm thrilled for you and Emma, and the kingdom, really. We could use something to hope for."

With that sunny optimism, Belle disappeared down the corridor, leaving Regina with three books and hundreds of questions. How could she want to be friends? Regina had imprisoned her. Confused that Belle was ready to forgive that and start anew, she returned to her lunch and finished in a daze. Maybe Emma could explain when she escaped from council. She hadn't asked to be forgiven, nor had she expected it, but her brief conversation with Belle lightened her heart.

Emma would know.

* * *

"Emma?" David asked for her as the council meeting broke up. Emma wanted nothing more than to slip away and check on Regina, especially when she'd been away all day, but her dad wouldn't ask for her without reason.

"Hey."

"Do you have a moment?"

She did, but she wished she could have said no. "Sure."

"I know you want to get back to Regina."

"That obvious?"

"If our positions were reversed, I doubt I would have made it through the end of the meeting."

"You mean I could have left?"

"No, probably not, but I admire your restraint."

Following him down the corridor towards the battlements, Emma reminded herself Regina was fine. Belle had seen her at lunch and said she looked radiant. The way she used that word exactly made Emma realise she knew about the baby. Perhaps she had even talked to Regina about the baby, which was a surprise, but a good one. Maybe Regina would feel more like a part of the community the more she shared with them. The baby was easy anyway, everyone loved babies. Everyone thought they had something to say when you were pregnant. Most of the time Emma hated it, but sometimes, when she was lonely, it had helped to have something to say.

David enjoyed strolling up over the castle there like she did, watching the stars over the dark forest. There were so many stars here that the sky seemed foreign. Stars she didn't know popped up in the middle of the few constellations Emma thought she did know and most of the time she had to guess.

"I wanted to say that I think I know how you feel."

"Okay." Was this a Regina being pregnant thing or a 'an powerful woman's trying to kill you thing'? Which one did she want it to be? Maybe he just wanted to talk, fathers did that, right?

"I grew up with just my mother. My father died when I was young, and after that it was just her and the goats and sheep. I loved farming. It's quiet, you have plenty of time to think and there are routines to it. You get up, milk the goats, take them out, keep them safe, bring them back in. It's simple and in a way I thought that was all I was going to do. I'd inherit the farm some day, fall in love with the blacksmith's daughter, have a small herd of children and maybe buy a cow."

"Seriously?"

"Cows are very expensive."

"You wanted a herd of kids?"

"I wanted company when I was young. It was miles to the next farm and it was kind of lonely. Maybe I was missing James, I don't know. I decided when I was young that I wouldn't have just one child."

Considering that any sibling she had was going to be eleven years younger than her son and probably a year younger than her daughter, Emma grinned at him. "You're a little behind."

"I was a shepherd, I didn't know much about curses and the effect they have on the plans you make for your life." David leaned on the battlements, turning his eyes upwards. "I never asked to take James' place. I didn't want it. King George threatened to kill my mother if I didn't remain his son, marry who he wanted and continue his line."

"Your paths to your happy endings are pretty brutal."

"They are, aren't they?"

"So you agreed to marry Kathryn- Abigail."

"I met your mother on my way to the wedding. She stole my jewels-"

"And you fought with trolls." Emma put her elbows on the wall, mirroring her father. "I read that story. You two were cute."

"Thank you."

"That doesn't mean I've forgotten what you were doing in the apartment-"

David laughed. "If you're really going to bring that up, I can tell you how not soundproof the walls of the _Jolly Roger_ are."

Shuddering, Emma shook her head. "Let's pretend not to discuss our sex lives."

"I'm a peasant, Emma. Discussing our sex lives was how we kept ourselves from going crazy in the winter. It's not like any of us could read."

She blinked at him, trying to take in the idea that he'd learned to read in King George's castle, as an adult. She'd never been the world's best student, but she could read by the time she was seven. Nearly everyone did.

"There wasn't anything for me to read. I could do sums enough to figure out how much I should have been being paid for my wool and cheese, but I didn't need to know anything else."

"Big learning curve being a prince then?"

Nodding, he flicked a tiny stone off the battlements to bounce down the wall into the water below. "I knew the basics of fighting, and I was too much of an idiot to be afraid when I should have been. I could pull off the dragon-slayer bit. The ruling of the kingdom was much more complicated. King George brought me tutors, some patient, some not and I tried to do well. I hating studying."

"I must get that from you."

"Your mother still has to explain to me what the unfamiliar words are when we write treaties and formal correspondence, and the kingdom's accounts still don't make much sense to me."

"Me either."

"So I listen, watch your mother, and try to be the kind of king I would have found fair if I was still a shepherd." He turned his head to her, smiling in support. "There's no secret trick to ruling a kingdom. Some people have trained their whole lives for it, like Snow and Regina, some of us get thrust into it and have to muddle through. You're so brave, so passionate and your heart is always in the right place. You'll be a great queen, Emma."

Her eyes stung. No one was ever proud of her. If she did well, she didn't get yelled at and no one was disappointed. Being quiet and staying out of trouble was all her foster parents wanted, not good grades (she couldn't do that either). "Hopefully not for a long time."

He put his arm round her shoulders and hugged her. "Not for a very long time, but I want you to know, if something happened to Snow and I, that you could do it. You would build a great kingdom."

She wasn't going to cry. Emma tried to keep up that pretence as long as she could. "Thanks."

"I'm not just saying this because I'm your dad. I was pretty proud of you when you were the sheriff who kept Mary Margaret out of prison."

Emma pulled him close, turning the half hug into a tight embrace. She didn't know what to say. She hadn't told him how afraid she was to be in charge, even if it was only a few weeks, and he'd known, and tried to make her feel better. Parents did that. Parents in stories took care of their kids like that. Now she was in one, and he loved her and fuck if she knew what to do with that.

He continued to hold her, steady and solid. "There's something else I wanted to tell you."

"I don't think I'm up for any more of you being nice to me." Emma muttered into his shoulder.

"Part of why we wanted to get away, just for awhile, was to spend some time together before everything gets crazy."

"You mean when we're attacked by evil fairies and the mines collapse on us?"

He let her go long enough to look at her, kissed her forehead and started hugging her again. "When you have a little baby to look after I think you'll really understand crazy."

"Regina's the only one who's done that before, so let's hope she remembers." They'd lost so much trying to be noble and do the right thing. If Henry hadn't come for Emma, she never would have known any of them: not her parents, not Regina, and not her son.

"I guess we're all getting another chance."

She thought for a moment he meant Regina's baby, but then her mind put the strings together. She broke their hug, staring at him.

"You guys are?"

"Your mother's pregnant. She wanted to tell Regina, so I got to tell you. I know it'll be a little strange having a sibling so much younger than you." Happiness lit his face like a thousand fireflies. "Our children can grow up together, which is admittedly odd, but wonderful."

As thrilled as she was that they were getting a chance to finally be parents from the beginning, it stung a little that she'd get to see what she'd never had. Her parents would get to be parents, the way they never had with her. She loved them, so the bitterness sank away. She could tell Regina and she'd understand. Emma would probably risk setting off another chain of self-accusation, but if it weren't for the curse, there would be no Henry, so the curse wasn't all bad.

"Congratulations." That was the right thing to say, and how much she loved them both, and how stupidly happy she was, because she was. Only a time part of her wished Emma could be that baby and grow up always loved, always secure, always knowing that his or her parents were there for her. She'd get through it. She'd be there for her own kids and watch her parents get the chance they missed.

Hugging her father again hid her tears. They were mostly happy ones anyway.

"I guess we're going to have more in common."

"Yeah, we can start our own expectant parents club. You can bring the liquor."

David laughed, kissing her again on the forehead. She wouldn't trade this, even to have her parents when she grew up. This was special, goofy, comedic special, and sweet at the same time. Maybe this was something they could do together, figuring out the parent thing as they went.

"I'm glad you're happy."

"Why I wouldn't I be happy?"

"I've heard sibling rivalry is a thing."

"I doubt it's that much of a thing when the kids are this far apart. Maybe between Baby Trouble and Baby Charming, they'll be much closer in age. Baby Charming better not have any evil plots to steal the throne or anything like that. I hear that happens with aunts and uncles and this family has a track record."

David kept his arm round her shoulder. "He or she will behave, we'll make sure of it." He hugged her a little tighter, as if sensing her sorrow that Henry would never be king. Maybe it would be good for him to avoid the throne. He hadn't had much of a chance to be Henry and maybe king was something he didn't want to be.

Emma didn't want it and Baby Trouble would at least have the luxury of knowing the responsibility was coming all her life. Emma wasn't sure if that would help or not, but maybe Regina and Snow would know what to do. They'd be raised to rule.

"Is mom okay? She's not sick like Regina was?"

"She never got that sick with you. She's been eating bread before she leaves bed saying that helps, I think it gets crumbs in the sheets-"

Emma nudged him in the ribs. "You are not allowed to complain about that."

"I am, just not to Snow."

Looking back up at the stars, Emma smirked. "When she's wearing something thin, Regina has just this much of a belly, and it's the most adorable thing I've ever seen. I just want to keep touching her, but she's a little self-conscious."

David shared her joy in a way that made her happy for her mother. "That's pretty normal."

"I think it's hard for her, trying to balance what everyone's going to think when we tell them. She's still the Evil Queen in her head and it's hard to convince her that people believe she's changed. She's almost friends with Ruby, and she seems to get along fine with Mulan." Emma drummed her fingers thoughtfully on the stone. "I thought it was hard for me to get used to having friends. It's much worse for her. I don't expect anyone to care, but she expects to be hated."

"Even now that you're married?"

"I guess marrying the saviour isn't a get out of jail free card for everyone when it comes to her."

"Has anyone said anything?"

Emma frowned, fidgeting with her sword hilt. "No one says anything. She just doesn't come out unless I'm there. No one eats next to her unless you, mom or I are there. It's gotten a little better because Mulan isn't afraid of her, and Aurora doesn't seem to hate her, but it's like no one sees her, not the way I do."

Touching her arm, he smiled to calm her. "No one may ever understand Regina as well as you do."

"I know we're all trying, but, I guess I wish I could make it go faster. She's done nothing but good for the kingdom since we came to Neverland. She helped me summon a dragon and save Qin. I mean, what else do we need to do?"

"I doubt anyone's waiting for proof of loyalty, you've made Regina's allegiances very clear. I think it's just that it's hard to change what you've believed in most of your life. If Rumpelstiltskin wanted to redeem himself, most people would have a hard time with that too."

"But Belle adores him."

"And his own son doubts he's really changed. Henry told me that Baelfire was happier with the mermaids than he'd ever seen him on land."

Emma couldn't help grinning at the mention of Henry. "You went to see him?"

David leaned against the wall next to her, staring out at the trees. "Your mother and I go whenever we can. King Triton and his daughters are valuable allies and it's incredible how much Henry's learned. He was telling us all about the whales who live in our part of the sea. Snow and I have never even seen a whale."

"I did at Seaworld." Fidgeting with her sword again, Emma risked the question. "What was it like when I was born?"

"Regina's curse darkened the sky; her guards attacked the palace. You decided to come in the middle of it." He stroked a stray piece of hair from her forehead. "You've always had unique timing."

"Who was there?"

"Your mother and I, and Doc. Everyone else was trying to keep us safe." He inclined his head, studying her.

Keeping her eyes on the cool stone beneath her fingers, Emma couldn't imagine Regina and Doc doing well together at all. The dwarves had a determined hatred of Regina that was only slowly abating. "I think Regina would like Mom to be there when Baby Trouble comes. She's known her the longest and I think they're really starting to get along."

"I'm sure your mother will be honoured if you ask. We both love you."

Emma had three prison nurses to deliver Henry, and they'd all been kind. They weren't family, and she hadn't been close to any of them, but none of them had hated her. They had painkillers and lots of machines, but other than the demerol, she hadn't needed much. Henry had been a pretty straightforward kid, three days from his due date, head down and in a hurry. She didn't even want to ask what they did here when there was a problem. Cut and hope the Blue Fairy could heal fast enough? She should have asked Regina already, but she didn't want to scare her.

She'd have to find someone other than Doc, or Dr. Whale. Regina had too much history with him to be comfortable and Emma wanted Baby Trouble's entrance into the world to be positive.

"You could ask Granny."

"Yeah?"

"She knows much about everything and she was the midwife in her village because she was the only one who didn't fear the wolf."

Granny had pointed her crossbow at Regina a few times, but that was less of a history than Whale bringing back her dead fiance. That was bound to be an interesting conversation. She could Regina first then talk to Granny, or maybe it was better to feel out her options before she mentioned any of it to Regina.

"I just want her to be safe."

"She'll be fine. Regina's one of the best survivors I know."

Emma didn't know how to tell her father that this was the medieval world, where people died from dirty water, poisonous bread and because someone didn't wash their hands after they touched a pig. They had magic, but did true love tackle simple things like babies being the wrong way round? What about infections? What was magically healed and what was just fate?

She'd have to ask for another audience with the Blue Fairy, or dare try Rumpelstiltskin. He seemed to know more of healing magic than he usually spoke of. Belle probably had some books on childbirth, because she had books on everything. What would medieval books say about it? Would they be all about amulets and praying? Mulan would be worth asking, because someone had trained her to heal, and surely babies would have been covered.

"Don't worry," her father said again. "It'll be fine. You and your mother were fine."

"I kinda wish I could have the kid for her."

"Henry wasn't that bad?"

"Not bad, like a marathon in the dead of night with a bowling ball strapped to your stomach or something." There wasn't a good way to describe it. She had been so young that she hadn't really understood what was going on. It hurt, but life hurt and she fought through it because that was what she did. It had to be different when you loved someone and they were there with you, holding you.

Regina would be fine. Perhaps this was part of the journey she needed to have to really forgive herself. There must have been a reason she'd gotten pregnant instead of Emma that was more than just Emma's incompetence. Magic had a weird will of its own and this child had been started with magic.

"You'll be there for her." Her father said that with the kind of sincerity that meant it was enough. Her family had so much belief that Emma found it hard to imagine where hers had gone. She struggled, but her parents just knew. So did Henry. Regina was on the other end, trusting that fate had doomed her. That left Emma the doubting middle ground.

"Think mom's had enough time?" Emma lifted her hands from the damp stone of the battlements, wiping the dew on her breeches.

"You want to get back."

"I don't want-"

"You want to be with Regina. Trust me, I understand."

He understood her better than he knew. Emma hugged him again, grateful beyond words that whatever twisted force writing their tale had given her back her parents now, when she needed them. They could do this. Maybe they'd have to do it all together: birth and raise the child as a village if they needed to. They were family now, and family didn't have to fight alone.

* * *

Regina pulled her tunic down across her waist, tucking it into her riding breeches. The first pair she'd been given had started out far too big several weeks ago, and she'd kept them, knowing she'd need them. She hadn't expected it to be so soon. She still didn't feel the baby showed much at all, but her waist had changed. She needed to fasten them loosely, and her coat would hide her as long as she didn't try to close it. Was her body going to keep changing so quickly from now on? She'd seen other women's bellies swell out past what seemed to be possible and she'd known it would happen to her, but never really had it sink in.

She turned in front of the mirror that she'd propped up on the bureau, putting a scarf around her neck and letting it hang down past her waist. That hid more of her. She wasn't sure she why wanted to hide the baby. She wasn't ashamed, but she wasn't ready. She drew enough stares as it was. Perhaps when her hair grew out and she could pull it back, it would be easier to pass through the people without being recognised and carefully avoided. Even in the Enchanted Forest, she was still too much their mayor and queen.

Smoke swirled in the little mirror but the genie hadn't shown himself. Was he still sulking because she'd locked him up after Kathrine's near murder had needed a scapegoat? Was it too hard for him to watch her with Emma? She hadn't spared much thought towards his feelings, but she'd never asked him to love her. It would have been enough if he'd lusted after her and wished to share her bed enough to kill her husband. She'd arranged for him to make a clean get away. He could have been safe in his homeland, far from the curse if he'd just left her.

The mirror made her more uneasy than studying her changed figure. Self-conscious, Regina flipped the mirror so it faced the wood and felt her belly with her hands instead, trying to judge how it had changed. Beneath her navel had a roundness and if she surrounded it with her hands, she could feel the fluid around the baby, strangely firm, but soft if she pushed inward. Was it dark? Could the baby feel her hands moving around her? Perhaps she'd poked too hard, because the bubbling feeling returned, moving just beneath her fingers.

"Hello," she whispered before she stopped herself. The baby couldn't hear her. She couldn't hear Emma either, but that never stopped Emma from rambling away as if the kid were at least twelve. There was no point in talking to the baby, yet, she wanted to. She wasn't even sure what she wanted to say, or how she'd word it, but the baby was part of her, part of Emma and as foolish as it seemed, she wanted to communicate with her.

"I know we're not supposed to go riding, not today anyway because we're supposed to be resting." The bubbling sped up, twisting somehow so it was closer to her left hand. "We've been inside all day and I'm fine. We're fine. So we're leaving, just for awhile." Sneaking out to go riding reminded her of a much simpler time, when she'd thought so differently about the world. Hiding from Emma was nothing like hiding from Cora. Emma would be disappointed, maybe even concerned, but she'd never hurt her. Emma would never make her beg, unless Regina wanted her too. Love forgave and didn't blackmail.

Thinking of her mother made her wonder if Cora had spoken to her when Regina had been within her. Had she cared? Without a heart, had being pregnant been anything more than a means to an end? Perhaps she'd hated the whole thing. Cora had never wanted another child after Regina and as lonely as she'd been, Regina had never questioned that. She was all her mother needed; all she'd bothered to have.

"We want you," she said to the tiny creature within her who would never doubt as Regina had. "We want you so much. We already love you. Emma loves you, Henry loves you, your grandparents will probably spoil you, and Ruby will teach you to hunt. You'll be loved from the moment we hold you. Every day." Her eyes stung and she blinked back the tears that threatened her control. She could make this right from the beginning; be sure this baby never saw the Evil Queen that Henry resented so much.

Emma would help keep her grounded. She had her own fears, but the way their difficulties meshed together worked. They could get this right; give this baby a good life, one less painful than either of her mother's and more stable than Henry's. There'd be no curse and no conflicting identities for her to grow up with.

Teleporting herself down to the stables, Regina avoided the guards and servants who might ask why she wasn't resting. No one would stop her, but word might get to Emma and that would mean a fight she didn't want to have. Magic healed faster than Emma believed it did, and Regina couldn't stand being kept in bed. It would have been different if she as tired, but by some miracle, she wasn't. She had more energy than she'd had in weeks and even though she'd had the entire day to do nothing with, she hadn't taken a nap. Perhaps it was residual magic, or she'd finally entered the part of pregnancy rumoured to be pleasant.

Quiet filled the stables, broken only by horses snuffling in their stalls. They'd made good progress and they'd be able to field cavalry soon, if they needed too. Dulcinea came to Regina's hand, looking for an apple, as she usually did. Regina hadn't brought one, but she seemed content just to be touched. Stroking the mare's velvet nose, Regina lost herself in the familiar scents of hay and horses. Peace reigned in the stables, and this one had no dark memories for her.

"I thought I might find you here," Snow interrupted her thoughts, emerging from the darkness. She wore simple riding leathers, ivory and brown. She'd left her crown behind too, and with her hair still short from the curse, she looked every bit the rogue princess, if a bit more elfin than her old wanted posters.

"You won't tell Emma?"

"Are you pushing yourself too hard?" Snow's tone had more of a maternal air than she usually dared with Regina.

"I feel fine."

"It took three diamonds worth of fairy dust to heal you yesterday."

"And it's effective." Regina pulled her saddle down from the wall and started for Dulcinea's stall. "Please, don't."

"Too much fussing for one day?"

"Emma ate breakfast with me, Grace brought up my lunch, Belle brought me books, then the cricket came to make sure I wasn't blaming myself for Maleficent's actions, then the Blue Fairy came to make sure I wasn't damaging her handiwork-" She stopped. She'd been unfair complaining about everyone else, but the Blue Fairy's brief visit had a strangeness to it that left her unsettled.

Snow led her mare out of the stall. The horse was more tan than white, and Regina recognised her as the one David had been calling Luna. He had mentioned that she was for Snow.

"People are worried about you." Snow said, checking the bridle.

"Why?"

"Because you're part of our community. You and your baby. When you came back from patrol covered in blood and beaten, you frightened many, and not just because Maleficent was out there, because you were hurt."

Pausing as she adjusted her own tack, Regina realised that Snow meant to come with her. Perhaps that would be her price for not telling Emma. She'd been trying to avoid company, but Snow hadn't fretted over her.

"I'm fine now."

"And we're all relieved." Snow swung herself up into her saddle and waited for Regina to finish. "It's been some time since I rode, but I ought to remember how this goes."

An acerbic barb came to Regina's tongue and faded. She didn't want to fight. In fact, she appreciated the quiet company. Other than those who came to worry about her, she'd been alone. Emma had promised to come back when council broke, but she'd been detained with her father and Regina just couldn't handle the walls of her bedroom any more.

"I was going to circle round the lake, then follow the beach for awhile."

"Sounds lovely," Snow agreed. "If you promise not to call me your majesty I won't tell Emma you took her baby riding at night."

Regina scoffed, sparing a glare at Snow. It wasn't as if she were bringing a newborn with her. Baby Trouble, as Emma so indelicately loved to call her, slept fairly comfortably within her. She'd barely feel a thing.

"The crown is heavy."

"To be honest, I don't know how you ruled for so long by yourself." Snow followed Regina out into the night, leaving the torches behind as they left the castle. Soon they only had the rising moon and brilliant stars above them.

"I didn't have much of a choice, dear." She kept Dulcinea to a walk, taking their time on the feeble road to the beach. They'd be clear of obstacles on the sand, but she didn't want to risk spooking the horses while in the trees.

Snow's soft smile carried a sympathy that would have disgusted Regina once, now she almost appreciated it. They rode for some time, absorbed in the softness of the night around them.

"Did you have a particular reason for ambushing me or is this just how you're bonding with your daughter-in-law?"

Grinning, Snow urged her mount ahead, reaching the beach before Regina. She circled round, bringing her horse even with Regina's again. "I've been meaning to catch you alone for some time."

Half expecting some threat about maintaining Emma's happiness, Regina tightened her grip on the leather reigns. "You have?"

"I wanted to tell you that David and I are, well, I suppose I'm doing most of it."

Stroking Dulcinea's neck, Regina didn't understand what Snow was getting at. "I beg your pardon?"

Smiling so that her face became a beacon of joy, Snow found easier words. "I'm pregnant, Regina. I wanted to tell you myself, before any one else did. Our babies are going to grow up together."

She should have suspected. Birth control was far from reliable here and Snow and David were particularly fond of each other. Emma's younger sibling would be a few months younger than his or her aunt, but stranger things had happened.

"Congratulations." Smiling came easier than she expected. It would be sweet to watch Emma play with both babies and it meant life had truly returned after the curse. Babies would be common for the next few years as everyone's lives moved forward after their long stagnation in Storybrooke.

"David's telling Emma, that's why he stole her from you." Snow reached across the space between their horses and squeezed Regina's hand. "She'll be waiting for you when we get back, I promise. I just, well, it's funny. I always thought that when I had a child, my mother would be there to guide me through it. When you married my father, I always knew it would be you."

"I'm not much ahead of you and you have already had a child." She couldn't have more than a few months head start, which hardly made her an expert, and Snow had already had Emma, and knew so much more than Regina did. That logic did not seem to bother the young queen.

"I just think it's wonderful to me that we're doing this together."

Regina wouldn't have used wonderful to describe it, but she shared a sense of camaraderie. Even if it only meant that someone would finally understand how much her breasts itched and Snow's pregnancy would take the kingdom's attention quite effectively from her own.

"I'm very happy for you."

"Thank you, Regina. You don't know what this means to me." Snow didn't force her into any more awkward conversation. She squeezed Regina's hand again and rode off down the beach, leaving Regina to her thoughts as Dulcinea shifted beneath her, eager to follow Luna down the sand.

Letting her go, Regina focused on her ride. She'd always felt free on the back of a horse. As the moon rose higher, reflecting over the sea, she drew even with Snow again and met her with a smile.

"You don't vomit the way I did, do you?"

"I'm sorry."

Regina nearly laughed. Snow would apologise for having a more pleasant pregnancy.

"I get headaches and sometimes I just want to eat plain bread because everything else upsets my stomach but no, I haven't thrown up at all."

Snow would probably get that glow everyone raved about and a perfectly round baby belly.

"You're past that though, aren't you?" Snow asked, turning her horse back towards the castle.

"As long as Rumpelstiltskin keeps his darker spells away from the castle, I should be fine."

"You're starting to show."

She thought she'd hidden it. "Emma keeps wishing for more."

"You'll carry it well."

There was no way of knowing what her slowly increasing figure would be like and the fact that both women seemed so much in agreement perplexed Regina. "How do you know?"

"You've always been beautiful. You were beautiful when you married my father, when you saved me from my horse, when you cursed me with that apple." Snow's eyes held only affection even when she spoke of the past. "You'll be the most beautiful pregnant woman our kingdom has ever seen."

Regina doubted that was a very large group, and the compliment made her uneasy, as they often did. Snow hadn't even called her kingdom, but instead magnanimously called it theirs. Yet, in spite of what logic told her, and her own misgivings, she wanted to believe Snow's faith was genuine.

"I'll probably look like I've swallowed a whole wheel of cheese again."

Snow White had been nothing but graceful and elegant when she was pregnant. It had been sickening at the time. Perhaps it had been different in her eyes.

"At least I'll be there first."

"You will." Snow reached for her hand and this time Regina met her halfway. "It'll be wonderful."

Returning Snow's smile, Regina couldn't deny that part of her agreed.


	4. four

**Notes: Huge apologies for taking so long to update. My semester started, work went nuts and I'm teaching...and *headdesk* I think I have a better handle on my life now so it should (hopefully) go much quicker. Thanks for sticking around.**

Settling back in her chair, Maleficent let the Mirror play out his little drama for her. Apparently he could show her what was happening through any mirror in the land, which would be useful as she plotted her revenge. She sharpened the talons on her left hand, scraping the claws against marble to wear them into points, as she watched Regina through the hand mirror she so innocently trusted. Surely she knew the Mirror could see everything she did, but then foresight had never been one of Regina's talents.

Regina dressed slowly, fidgeting with her clothing as she pulled it on. Magic had healed her so that Maleficent's attack hadn't even left a bruise on her skin. Regina had always been jealous of good, did she now enjoy the privileges the heroes camp had to offer? The way she loving tucked her shirt around the swell of her belly, then carefully laced her breeches made Maleficent pause. Her hair was darker and her skin more olive than another queen Maleficent had once watched from afar. Dropping the sharpening stone, Maleficent retracted the onyx claws of her dragon form and let her hands return to their human state.

She remembered similar motions from that other queen. The same loving tenderness in her hands. Maleficent hadn't needed a mirror to watch her and the old sorrow, her deepest pain, rose into her throat.

Regina proved she wasn't an idiot and turned the mirror to the wood.

"About time you remembered your man in the glass," Maleficent murmured. About to send the mirror away because it now showed nothing, she heard Regina speak on the other side of the mirror, even though the reflection had gone black.

_"Hello,"_ she said.

The tentative way Regina formed the word, almost as if she feared her own unborn child would judge her for her weakness, cut into Maleficent's heart. Perhaps Cora had been right to rip out of her own. Life was pain, yet Maleficent welcomed the ache. She'd had years of her own thoughts as a dragon, slumbering away as the cursed decades past. She'd nearly forgot what it was to love and to bear the pain of letting love go.

_"I know we're not supposed to go riding today."_

"No, you certainly aren't," Maleficent answered her, ignoring that Regina could not hear her.

_"We're supposed to be resting."_

"You did just get attacked by me, dear, surely your patronising cerulean fairy told you to spend some time in bed?"

Regina insisted that she and the baby were fine. Maleficent tried to mock her, to summon the hatred she'd told herself burned so strongly, but instead she watched, listening to Regina's voice falter before it regained strength. Hating her would be simpler. Taking her child and crushing Regina's fragile happiness promised bitter vengeance, but Maleficent had no stomach for it as Regina continued.

She'd never destroyed love. She'd turned that little prince into a demon so he could prove himself, and sent Aurora and her mother into the cursed sleep, but she hadn't killed. She could tell herself she wanted it, that Regina and her white knight deserved their deaths for what they'd done, yet it rang false. Emma had only seen a terrible beast containing the damn golden egg her handsome prince of a father had stuffed inside her. Regina had trapped her as a dragon, but she'd always been a difficult friend. She hadn't killed her, even when Maleficent wished for death.

_"You'll be loved from the moment we hold you. Every day,"_ Regina finished within the mirror. Her voice cracked, soft with unshed tears and Maleficent's pity threatened to turn her own eyes.

She had true love, that had been proved beyond a doubt. Didn't she deserve the child too? Her Regina had been her friend through suffering, the only one who understood what it was to continue to lose, battle after battle and always be alone. Regina had her little family now, and Maleficent suspected it would not be difficult for the good to begin to forgive.

"Do you see why we must take her child?" The Mirror interrupted Maleficent's thoughts. "She loves the brat already. Taking it will make the queen suffer before she dies."

Were all men so simple minded? The dead king who'd given the Mirror his final wish hadn't seen what death lay next to him in bed.

King Stefan had never known the lengths his wife had gone to in order to give him the child Briar Rose. Queen Leah's memory still plagued her heart, gnawing at her with old, dull teeth.

Frustrated with her silence, the Mirror again called for Regina's head.

"I will see for myself," Maleficent hushed him. "Your powers are great, but I must see for myself."

"What more could you possibly wish to see? Take the child. Cut it from her if you must-"

Maleficent waved him quiet, putting enough magic behind the motion for him to truly understand what she meant. "Wait here for me." She made it a command, knowing he'd never obey. It was so much easier when one caused their own undoing.

Shrinking within herself, she took the wisp form. Travelling as dragon was quicker but it drew so much attention. Wisps were common enough in the Enchanted Forest for no one to pay them much thought. She reached out her senses, feeling for the enchantment on Regina's ring.

Trust the White Queen and her charming King not to realise that a tracking charm that powerful was accessible not just to the love birds they'd meant it for. Rumpelstiltskin would have known, but he'd kept it to himself as he always did. Perhaps it suited him to be able to find Emma and Regina at will. One of them waited within the castle: that would be the saviour. Regina had ridden out along the beach and Maleficent rushed through the woods from her Forbidden Fortress to the water.

Sticking to the trees, she kept herself down in the underbrush so the green light she radiated in this form wouldn't be that noticeable. She needn't have bothered, neither woman was paying much attention. Their horses walked lazily along the beach side by side as they talked. The White Queen was also with child and as they chatted about nothing, Maleficent realised there was affection between them. Snow had always been fond of her stepmother and that had once been a thorn in Regina's side, now she seemed to welcome it.

Maleficent had felt Cora's death, even as a wraith, and perhaps that had been the last obstacle between Regina and her long path to forgiveness. Maleficent too had a complex relationship with her mother, but hers had long been beyond repair. Fairies did not learn to be dragons. That was old magic, older than Reul Ghorm tolerated in her little coven.

Maybe she wouldn't have been so susceptible to Queen Leah's pleading if she'd been a better fairy. The power of the fairy sisterhood was great but it always had to be controlled. Not every pleading couple could have a child. Sometimes life refused to grow because of cruel fate and empty destiny. Maleficent had paid for her mistake, given the Reul Ghorm what she asked and accepted her exile. Regina had seen it as defeat, as had the kingdom, and she'd been content to retreat to her fortress with her pet.

The dark curse had needed a protector, and Maleficent had thought herself strong enough.

Regina's fall and her desperate hollowing of her own heart could have been prevented if Maleficent had been willing to sacrifice what she loved.

She hated sacrifice and was sick to death of the nobility of it. Paying the price of magic willingly was no better than blundering in blind of the consequences. Regina still did not know what she'd unleashed and what the final toll would be, but how could she? Dear, clever human that she was, she was still human, bound by the brevity of that existence.

Maleficent could have brought it to an end. Regina trusted her horse, only holding the reins in one hand, and even though she argued her strength, the fight yesterday had weakened her. Maleficent only need spook the horse, send it galloping along the rocky, uneven beach until not even Regina's magic could save her.

The taste of death had softened her, brought her closer to her child. A child Maleficent would never be able to take. Revenge, cold as it was, had no appeal to her now. Regina had reminded her that love was weakness, and it was that Maleficent embraced. She'd wanted to summon the wickedness everyone knew lived within her, but there were older battles to wage. Her weakness could feed her, bring her closer to the humans she'd never fit among.

Hovering along behind the queen that was and the queen who'd been, just out of their view, Maleficent listened as they spoke of Emma, of potential names for the baby Emma was so convinced was a girl and how the baby would arrive, most likely in the dead of winter with snow wailing outside.

Maleficent's traitorous memory brought up another snow storm and she again forced it down. Now was not the time to think of Leah and her daughter. The granddaughter was here too, Maleficent could feel her in the castle above the water. Perhaps she'd rebuild her family's legacy, putting her own kingdom back together someday.

She would enjoy seeing that. Letting go of revenge lightened her heart and listening to Regina speak of nothing but her love for her daughter shifted Maleficent's ancient mind. The Reul Ghorm might say Regina did not deserve her happiness, but shaking up the balance had always been so much fun.

She'd go to him, the beast, and let him wax rhapsodical about the plot he'd wrought in the mine. Maleficent could sense the darkness there better than most because she knew blackness. She'd held the dark curse in her hands and kept it safe until Regina had overwhelmed her.

That she could forgive. Regina hadn't understood, or perhaps hadn't even cared how much the curse would take from her. She still didn't know what she'd unleashed by breaking it. The saviour's heart had great strength and the birth of the one who slept would go far towards settling the balance. It wasn't enough.

Humans could never feel the threads of their universe unravel and perhaps that was their gift. The itching tug of imbalance in the back of Maleficent's mind nagged like a constant headache. Dead had meant a moment of quiet in her dark, unyielding life. If only Emma had been allowed to truly end her and finally set her free.

Fate held her, far crueller than Regina and stronger still than the Reul Ghorm. Maybe she'd had too much power too long, because Reul Ghorm should have known what Maleficent did. She should have been able to sense it.

If she did, well then, that would be an interesting turn.

The Mirror spoke from the starlight sea. "Aren't you going to stop her?"

"What did I ask you to do?" Maleficent said, returning to human form. The cool air gave her strength rather than chilling her.

"Regina is there, undefended. You can kill her in front of the queen or kill them both. You could end all of this."

Staring at him in the reflective sea, Maleficent allowed herself a smile. "You're right." Summoning her powers, she pointed both palms at the Mirror in the sea. Dragging up the depths of destruction within her, Maleficent blasted him through the reflection, through every mirror in the kingdom that he dwelled within, through each surface that allowed him a window unto Regina, she burned him. Scorching him clean from existence, Maleficent blew smoke from her nails and shrugged.

"Now you're free."

That display had surely drawn attention so she embraced the dragon form, rising into the sky and turning her wings to home. Without the Mirror, spying would be more difficult but his rambling had been useless. Revenge was not what she wanted, nor did she want to break Regina's fragile heart. As difficult as she was, she was a friend and Maleficent had so few.

She'd grown soft, but all things did as they aged and even granite cracked with time. She wouldn't rush. Time had always been on her side, so she would wait. Perhaps even sleep until fate was ready to reveal itself.

* * *

"The mirrors just shattered," Emma said. The servant girl swept the glass from the floor and shook out the rugs. "Apparently it happened all over the castle."

Regina tugged her jacket tighter over her body, almost as if she were trying to hide. Though she'd come in from her ride flushed and happy, now she'd gone pale.

Emma waved the servant girl away. "I'll finish."

"Yes, your highnesses, your majesty." The girl curtsied, everyone was always curtsying to Emma and she could never figure out what she was supposed to do in return. Smile?

Snow smiled graciously, so Emma followed suit. The girl disappeared behind the oak door. Regina paced in front of the bed, her riding boots clicking against the stone.

"What is it?"

"All the mirrors in the castle broke at once?"

Emma shrugged. "Not all of them. The ones near us, our room, the corridor on the way to the throne room, not in Aurora's room, but the one in Mom's room."

Crossing her arms over her chest, Regina turned. "Places I've been?"

Snow extended a hand to Regina, stroking her stiff arms on her chest. "It's all right. He can't hurt you."

"What's going on?" Emma asked. Staring at both of them got her nowhere, so she focused on her mother. Snow would tell her first.

"You knew him as Sydney Glass," Snow said. Guiding Regina towards the bed with a gentleness Emma adored in her mother, Snow sat down beside her. "In this world he's a genie. My father found him in a lamp on the beach and freed him. My father thought of himself as a kind man."

Regina's expression darkened even further and when she started to pull away from her, Snow took her hand and held it close.

"He freed the genie with his first wish and used his second wish to give the genie the last wish, so the genie could begin a new life of his own choosing." Snow removed her riding jacket and handed it to Emma to hang in the ornate wardrobe. "The genie murdered my father because he thought he was freeing Regina to be with him."

"Because he loved me," Regina interrupted. "I made him love me."

"So what, he's after us too?" Emma stood in front of them, then stepped forward to reach for Regina's shoulder. Another danger was not what they needed, but she'd beat Sydney once, surely here with magic, that would be easier.

"So what, he's after us too?" Emma stood in front of them, then stepped forward to reach for Regina's shoulder. Another danger was just the icing on the damn cake, but she'd beat Sydney once, surely here with magic, it would be easier.

"He's trapped in mirrors, but the mirrors are destroyed." Regina leaned into her hand, just enough to make Emma aware of her concern. "I don't think he would have had the power to destroy them himself. He turned himself into an observer, nothing more. If he could have escape, he would have."

"Could Maleficent have freed him somehow?" Emma grasped at straws, but the number of people she knew with magic was limited to the fairies, Rumpelstiltskin, neither of which would have helped him, Regina, herself and Maleficent. Out of those five, the last was arguably the most dangerous and the only one who was currently violent towards them.

"Why would she?" Snow asked, looking at Regina.

Shaking her head, Regina forced her hands into her lap. "I don't know. Maleficent is not fond of men. She's a fairy."

"The fairies don't hate men," Emma said. Snow and Regina shared a look and that meant that this was another one of those things Emma just didn't know because she was a stranger to this place.

"They don't, now." Regina reached up for Emma's hand on placed her own over it. "The fairies are an ancient order, as old as the Dark One. In their history, they haven't always accepted that men had much purpose. Maleficent is an old fairy."

"She's hardly a fairy," Snow said. "She must have been banished centuries ago. Blue never speaks of her."

"She wouldn't." Regina's voice had a chill to it that Emma wanted to know more about. "Maleficent and Blue have history."

"Blue told me."

Regina's set of her lips suggested that there were conflicting accounts. "Let us say that Maleficent is a former member of the oldest fairy coven in this land and she remembers the old ways of their order. She'd feel little loyalty to any man and have even less interest for his well-being. She may have used the genie as an informant, but she'd hardly take the effort to free him." She took a breath, slowly filling her chest as her eyes met Emma's. "If the mirrors near rooms where I have been shattered as you say, I believe the genie may be dead."

"Dead?" Emma knelt in front of Regina, taking both her hands. "She'd do that?"

"Fairies have not always been glowing creatures in tutus who wish to be seen as kindly granters of wishes."

"Dead?" Emma knelt in front of Regina, taking both her hands. "She'd do that?"

"Fairies have not always been glowing creatures in tutus who wish to be seen as kindly granters of wishes."

Snow looked like she wanted to argue. She was pretty close to Blue and the other fairies, but she and Regina were trying to get along and Regina had definitely long been on the other side of the fairy issue.

"This wishes thing really doesn't go well here often, does it? Wish to Rumpelstiltskin and he takes your kid, wish to a genie and he might kill you, wish to fairies and what? What else can you lose?"

Neal had lost his father, though really that was Rumpel's fault, it probably hadn't helped him grow up to be the sperm donor he'd ended up being to Henry. Though he was trying and maybe this time together with the mermaids would be good for both of them. Thinking about Henry stung, as it did since he'd been trapped in the sea. Maybe this was the start of his teenage rebellion, but he didn't seem to mind as much as his mother's did. Maybe the kid just needed some time to figure himself out.

Regina and Snow shared a look. Having them almost on the same side was kind of weird, now that she thought about it. They had much in common and this look was all about losing their babies.

No one was going to take either of their kids this time, no matter what Emma had to do. Baby Trouble and Baby Charming would be safe. She had magic now, maybe if she got better, if she kept practicing, she could keep everyone safe. Add that to the ever growing list of responsibilities. Protect her family, protect the kingdom; be the saviour because there was always someone to save. It would be nice if the people who needed saving could stop being the people she loved for awhile.

"Perhaps you should speak to the Blue Fairy."

"I doubt she'll be truthful," Regina said. Her grip on Emma's hands tightened. "Aurora might know pieces of Maleficent's history, but I doubt her mother passed down the entire story. "

Snow frowned. "And you think she was truthful with you?"

"At the time we were friends and she was the only one I considered to be so. Why would she have lied?"

Emma kissed the back of Regina's hand, then returned to her feet. Her mother still looked unconvinced and the last place she wanted to be was between them in some kind of argument about the true nature of fairies. "I'll talk to Aurora and the Blue Fairy and try to get the whole story. Maybe Maleficent will agree to negotiate with me. I'm the one who killed her, perhaps I can find a way to make amends."

Regina stood, hands on her hips. "Emma, no. I trapped her."

"And you're pregnant." She hated having to throw that in there, but Maleficent was not hurting the baby, especially not through Regina. "I'm the child of true love, remember? I'm kind of immune to dark magic."

Wanting to negotiate seemed to have put Snow and Regina both back on the same side.

"Maleficent is not Cora. She does not take hearts," Regina said. Her lips set in a thin line, she watched Emma.

"She doesn't kill either, does she? She used the sleeping curse on Aurora and her mother, turned Phillip into a demon. I trust that you can save me from a sleeping curse and that my true love thing can save me from being a demon."

Snow turned her gaze to Regina, then folded her arms over her chest. "She certainly tried to kill Regina."

"So what, we skip talking and go straight to attacking? Do we kill her?"

"Perhaps," Regina said.

"When it's necessary," Snow agreed.

"Seriously?" Emma turned from both of them and paced in front of the shattered mirror lying on the table. She would happily toss Maleficent into the deepest dungeon for what she'd done to Regina, but straight up killing her was harsh. Regina had been the darkest force in the land, but she'd redeemed herself. Rumpel had traded, bargained and killed. He'd even written the curse that Regina had used to doom them all, but he'd helped save Henry. Where was the line? If it was killing, Regina did not deserve to be forgiven. If it was malevolent intent, Rumpelstiltskin probably shouldn't be living in his mansion on the outskirts of the kingdom.

"Can't we just take her magic?"

"She'd rather be dead," Regina said. Her hand slipped from her hip to the soft curve of her belly. "A life without magic would have no meaning for her."

Emma wanted to reach for her, to remind her that even magic, Regina had everything to live for, but Snow did it for her. Snow reached for her, pausing for permission in her eyes before she touched her belly. Snow's fingers followed Regina's, saying hello to her granddaughter.

Snow smiled but her eyes held sorrow. "She doesn't have anyone left to live for."

That was the limiting factor on Regina and Rumpelstiltskin. The beast had his beauty and the Evil Queen lived as Regina now. Maleficent had no one. She'd have to talk to her. Maybe there was a way to reach her. She had to have something. Rumpel had wanted his son back and Regina loved Henry. Was there someone, something out there Maleficent still loved?

"Killing her can't be the first plan. We can't do that."

Regina nodded, but Snow was unmoved. Was that the Queen's mask or had she changed so much now that she held the throne?

"Rumpelstiltskin may have a way to repel her, and the Blue Fairy will know how to keep her back, for now." Snow sounded confident, but Regina's face couldn't hide her doubt.

Emma wasn't sure how far she trusted either of them. The Blue Fairy had taken August's memories and turned him back into a boy. She'd made a deal with Geppetto that had taken Emma from her mother. She'd stopped Nova from being with Grumpy and the fairies seemed to have a pretty strange code governing their magic. Rumpel had been helpful, and maybe since he was happy here, with Neal back and Belle with him, he'd continue to be helpful. Though if he really had everything he wanted, maybe he had no motivation anymore. She had nothing to trade him.

For half a moment, her heart hardened, remembering how it had been her against a world of pain, alone. Her life wasn't that now. She had Regina, her parents, Henry, friends and a little future baby who was going to have Regina's dark eyes. She would never be alone again.

Snow found a smile. "You two should get to bed. You've had a long day." She pulled Regina close, embracing her and reaching for Emma to add to the hug. "Take care of each other."

"We do," Emma promised. "Congrats, mom."

Beaming at them both, Snow pulled Emma close to kiss her forehead. "Your father and I are so happy."

"We're happy for you." Emma spoke for both of them, and Regina's smile agreed. "Besides, two babies at once should be fun. We'll all be sleep deprived and overwhelmed together."

"Won't that be a picnic."

Emma wrapped her arm a little tighter around Regina's back. "You're the only one who's done this. You'll have to be our role model."

Regina's expression passed through disbelief to a soft kind of acceptance that filled her eyes with tears.

"We're going to do it together," Snow said. "Which is the best way."

She kissed them both again, even hovering over the swell of Regina's belly long enough to bid the baby goodnight.

Emma finally returned to the broken glass and swept it up into the crude wooden dustpan. Regina waved her hand over the rest of the mess and it vanished.

"Right," Emma said. "Magic cleaning."

"It's a little faster."

"It's a little faster. You could have easily done it yourself."

Emma wiped her hands against themselves, then washed them in the basin on the bureau. "That girl was doing a good job. I didn't want to make her feel bad."

"She's Grace. Jefferson's daughter. Your mother gave her a position in the castle's household."

"That's her?" Emma finished drying her hands. She reached for Regina's sleeve and started extracting her from her riding jacket. "She's a servant? Isn't she like, eleven?"

"Childhood is very different here. Grace will learn a good trade in the castle. She'll learn to cook, to manage a large household so when she's ready, she could run an entire castle someday. Your mother's given her a good life." Regina wriggled out of her coat, pulling her long shirt free of her trousers. The way she sighed made Emma smile.

"They're tight."

"What?"

"Your pants."

"Riding trousers are always tight."

Sliding onto the bed, Emma wrapped her hands around Regina's belly. "Tight here?"

"Not traditionally, no." Regina sighed again, leaning back into Emma. Closing her eyes, she reached back and touched Emma's cheek. "I don't know how long I can hide it."

"You're not really known for dressing simply." Emma nuzzled the back of her neck. "At least, so I'm told." Regina's outfits in the past were pretty amazing in Henry's book. "We don't have to hide it. I can ask Mom to say something, or I can. I can make an announcement in the next council meeting if you want, then it'll be out there. You don't have to worry. Nothing's going to happen to the baby. Maleficent doesn't even know."

"If the Genie is reporting to her, she knows." Regina stiffened. "Perhaps that's why she killed him."

Emma ran her fingers lower, exploring Regina's thighs. "Because you're pregnant? I'm sure if she's a crazy fairy, she killed him because he annoyed her, or said something she disagreed with. If she really wanted to hurt you, wouldn't it be better to keep him alive?"

"Perhaps."

"Look, if you stay in the castle for awhile, Maleficent can cool off and you and I together are definitely more than she can handle. We could even ask the fairies to see if they can bind her out of the castle."

"Her magic is too similar to theirs to be affected by a binding spell."

Much more interested in Regina's thighs and what lay between them than discussing the nature of magic, Emma kissed her way down Regina's neck. "So there are three kinds of magic?"

"Crudely, I can think of five that I have seen in our land." Regina inhaled deeply when Emma's fingers dove in. Perhaps Emma could convince her there were things more important than magic. "There's fairy magic, which uses the most precious stones to bear the price. Then there's the Dark One's magic, which takes the cost from you directly, hollowing you out and binding you to the dagger. There's the magic of the genies of the east. My magic is learned. It's based in emotion and from what I can tell, that cost can be paid in whichever emotion is strongest. My mother gave up love and became incredibly powerful. You were conceived in true love, and that makes you powerful in a way I haven't seen before."

Emma rubbed her belly again, peering over her shoulder. "Will Baby Trouble have magic?"

"I have no idea. I had to learn mine, as my mother did. Perhaps if she learned she would, but she may have no natural aptitude. Magic is quite rare, and the cost is often high."

Rising her hands to Regina's breasts, Emma slipped her fingers beneath Regina's shirt. "You and I have true love. You saved me with it."

"But we needed magic just to bring her into being." Regina shook her head. "I don't know. There may be something in Rumpelstiltskin's library, but I don't know if he'd want us to rummage through it."

Peeling Regina's trousers down her thighs, Emma guided Regina up to undress her properly. "If she has magic or not, you and I can keep her safe."

"We will." Regina found a smile before she turned to kiss her. Physical affection came much easier than talking for both of them. Pushing Emma down onto the bed, Regina slipped out of the trousers she'd worn riding and climbed onto Emma's lap. "I missed you today."

"Did you?" Emma teased. Wriggling out of her trousers, she sat up enough to pull her shirt up over her head.

"I did." Regina worked her way down Emma's neck, then began to unwrap the cloth around Emma's breasts.

"We could just reinvent bras," Emma said, studying Regina's breasts from her vantage point beneath them. "I'm sure the seamstresses can come up with something."

Slipping out of the binding she wore, Regina lowered herself just over Emma, so their skin touched. She licked a trail down Emma's stomach. The heat of her mouth quickly faded into the cool night air and Emma squirmed as she continued down.

"Do you think that's the only way one makes clothes?"

Regina's fingers worked their way up Emma's thigh, forcing Emma to work to concentrate.

"You haven't made clothes with magic."

Nuzzling Emma's stomach, Regina rested her chin just above Emma's hip. "Frivolity wouldn't serve the kingdom."

Reaching down to stroke Regina's hair, Emma let her fingers slide through. "Our kingdom."

Kissing Emma's stomach, Regina paused and smiled up at her. "I never thought I'd care to share with anyone." Her index finger ran slowly across Emma's labia, teasing the wetness beneath.

"I'd let you have it." Emma's gasped, nearly losing her words.

Regina lowered her mouth just enough to blow across Emma's sensitive thigh. "Oh really?"

Rolling her hips up towards Regina's mouth, Emma dug her hands into the sheets. "I'd let you have anything."

Laughing, Regina lifted Emma's legs, opening them up. Instead of touching her, Regina crawled up, sliding her breasts along Emma's stomach and settling into the space between her legs.

Sighing, Emma pulled her closer. "Anything."

"Funny how that keeps me from wanting it." Regina kissed her. "You can't make it too easy."

Emma ran her hand over the swell of Regina's belly. Beneath Emma's palm, her skin was silk, soft and warm. She traced the curve as it filled her hands. She'd never found pregnancy beautiful when it was her own body. Henry living within her only became sadder the larger he grew. Henry had been growing away from her, each day rushing towards the point where she couldn't keep him. Maybe he'd always been moving towards Regina, because both of them had needed her.

Pulling Regina tight to her, Emma kissed her. Letting the tears run hot down her face, she kept kissing until Regina held her face, stopping her.

"What is it?"

"You."

Regina removed her hand from between Emma's thighs and rested it just over her heart. "Me?"

"I love you."

Sitting back, almost confused, Regina leaned close. "I know that."

"Sometimes I can't get over it."

"What?" Regina settled on her side, propping herself up on her elbow.

"When I was pregnant with Henry, it was different."

Emma rolled on her side and Regina curled around her, her belly just big enough to be distinct against Emma's back.

"No fairies tried to kill you?" Regina meant it in fun, but Emma had nearly lost her, and an powerful fairy was out there, waiting.

She was going to talk to Maleficent. It didn't matter what she had to say, what she had to give up: Regina was a price she wouldn't pay. Not now that she was happy. Cora hadn't been able to take Emma's heart, maybe she'd be able to hold out. Somehow.

She needed Rumpelstiltskin. If anyone knew how to keep Maleficent at bay, it was him. Regina wouldn't like it.

Rolling over in Regina's arms, Emma held her tight with their foreheads' touching. "No one tried to kill me. No one's going to try to kill you either."

"Thank you." Regina whispered.

Running her fingers through her hair, Emma waited for Regina to explain.

"No one's ever tried to save my life as much as you have."

"I love you," Emma reminded her. "Maybe I did a little then too."

Regina's eyebrows rose. "You don't say."

"I tried not to."

"You?"

Emma sighed and shook her head on the pillow. "I don't know if I would call it love, but I definitely had a thing for you before we-"

"Got me knocked up."

Giggling, Emma grabbed the hand Regina had on her belly and kissed it. "Would you really have said that?"

"I overhead it. We had far more crude ways of saying it." Regina pursed her lips, suddenly prim. "Not that I knew any."

"Of course not."

Regina's hand slipped down Emma's stomach and dove between her thighs again. Emma's breath caught in her throat.

"I love you," Regina murmured in her ear. Sliding her fingers over before they went in, Regina claimed her body as she already commanded Emma's soul. She never cried during sex. Sometimes long after, when whoever it was had gone. Now she kept kissing so Regina would trust that her tears were happy ones. Her dark eyes still held sorrow, and a gentle concern her wife hadn't been capable of before.

Emma wasn't Graham. She wanted to be here. Even with tears pooling on her chin, Regina above and inside of her was exactly what she wanted. Regina's tongue against her clit spun Emma's head, sending her towards the brink of climax, but Regina couldn't watch her cry.

No amount of gasping and moaning Regina's name could convince her, and Regina's worry precluded her desire to see Emma finish. Emma had to love her for that, even when orgasm threatened to abandon her utterly.

"I'm all right," she whispered. Kissing Regina's lips over and over until tears and the taste of Emma's sex were melted together on both their tongues. "I nearly lost you."

Sliding in and out, reaching up and in, Regina's fingers continued to move. Emma squirmed against her, almost wishing she could just let it go. They needed to talk, but they had so little time alone and she wanted Regina, more than she wanted to talk.

"You didn't. Maleficent isn't a killer."

The argument Emma wanted to make, concerning a very angry dragon hell bent on burning her to a crisp, stopped abruptly. Regina's fingers teased, pushing harder against her clit until she buried her cry of release in Regina's shoulder. Emma held her tight, letting the fog take her thoughts and soften them.

Regina's certain whisper echoed. With her lips next to Regina's ear, Emma shook herself out of her melancholy.

"What did you mean?"

Regina sucked her fingers clean, then brushed Emma's cheek. "Maleficent isn't a killer."

"She went after you like one."

"She used the sleeping curse against Aurora and her mother."

Kissing the fingers that still tasted like her, Emma sighed. "And that means?"

"She had the Dark Curse, the one that created Storybrooke, and she has the dragon, either of those would have been much more effective than the sleeping curse."

"Effective."

"In a final sense."

"You think because she didn't kill Aurora when she had the chance, she won't kill you."

Emma sat up, and Regina pulled away from her, staring.

"Why wait?"

"Why didn't you kill Snow when you had the chance?"

"Your mother."

Emma caught Regina's chin so she couldn't look away. "It's all right."

"I hated her too much." Regina took her hands back, as if to pull entirely away.

Bringing her back, Emma kissed her hands, then the soft skin of her belly. "That's done now."

"I don't think Maleficent hates me that much."

Keeping her hands over the baby, Emma tried to believe her. "You kept her chained in a cave."

Regina wrapped her hands over Emma's.

"She was my only friend."

That old, consuming loneliness was something they always shared. Emma had grown up alone, but Regina had been alone within her family, then alone within her marriage.

"I needed her," Regina finished. "I couldn't curse her. Not like the others."

"Because she was your friend?"

"She protected the trigger, and my secrets."

Stroking Regina's arm, Emma wrapped her up in her arms and brought her back to the bed.

Regina lay silently as Emma hold her close. Her breathing slowed and Emma would have been willing to let it go, to pick up the whole mess in the morning.

"I don't have many secrets left."

Emma's hands joined Regina's above the baby again.

"Maleficent tried to stop me from using the dark curse. She fought me, her friend, to stop me. I never would have done that. I didn't think it was too terrible. I didn't think about my heart, but she did. She worried about my heart once, killers don't do that. I think she's better than that. Better than I was."

Emma rose above her, finding her lips. "You're not a killer now. You're better than you were."

"That doesn't make it disappear. You can't take that past from me." Regina smiled, but there was no mirth in it.

"We're not our pasts. I'm not a lost little kid who can't be a mother. You're not a killer. We all start out clean and life makes us dirty and maybe we do some of it ourselves, but that's not who we are. You're beautiful."

Regina laughed, shaking her head on the pillow. "That doesn't excuse my actions."

"Not that kind of beautiful." Emma stroked down her chest, across her belly then brought her hands back to Regina's shoulders. "You're beautiful inside."

Regina's tears crept from her eyes. "To you."

"I'm the one that matters. Me and Henry, and Trouble here."

"You can't just kiss it all away."

"This is true love," Emma reminded her. "When I kiss you, it breaks any curse. That's how it works here."

Regina shook her head and Emma kissed her. Kissing her again and again, Emma brought herself over her, slipping her leg between Regina's until she gasped.

"Whatever we have to do, we'll keep you safe, and Henry, and our baby. True love wins here, right?"

"For your parents." Regina's argument was breathy, half lost in the motion of Emma's leg between her own.

"Maybe I take after them."

"Which is certainly the height of irony if that's how you choose to defend me."

Emma ran her hand down, between their skin. Regina's hips rose to met her fingers. Her labia wet when Emma found her. She rolled her fingers over Regina's clit, making her moan.

"Gotta go with what works." Emma nibbled her shoulder, sinking two fingers deep into the heat of her.

Her thumb circled Regina's clit, forcing her to breathe faster. Regina twisted up, sending Emma's hand deeper. Emma played with her swollen breast, teasing her nipple. Regina dragged her hand away, clasping their fingers together. Watching her face, Emma brought her to climax with her fingers, sharing her breath when Regina gasped into her mouth.

Lying on top of her, the sheets and blankets spread around them as the cool air took the heat from their skin. Emma didn't believe the fairy tales. She'd known too much of the world, but this world was different, wasn't it? Maybe in this world everyone was redeemed, even those who'd lost themselves to the darkness. Regina's lay behind her, so did Emma's, it had to because a whole kingdom depended on her being the shining princess.

She'd never wanted to be the saviour. Saving Henry had been enough responsibility to nearly drown her and saving the town was an accidental bonus. If she could keep Regina safe and make a life here in the netherworld of fairy tales, maybe she'd find enough within herself to be ruler. Save her queen, learn to be one.

She could do it. She had to. Everyone depended on her and somehow that wasn't as terrible as it had once been. Yes, it was a terrible idea and no one in their right mind would have chosen her to be princess, but Regina had taken her as wife and Henry and this baby needed a mother. Emma could do that and maybe, if she was lucky, muddle through the rest.

With Emma gone into yet another council meeting and Mulan not yet allowed to return Regina to patrol (Snow was overprotective, she'd always been), Regina had a day without responsibilities. She'd never been good with her free time. In Storybrooke she'd had her garden, and there at least time had passed so she'd had something to do. Did she dare plant an apple tree? Would someone come for it? Did she need Snow's permission?

Her relationship with Snow was better than it had been in decades and she'd be allowed to plant a tree if she wished, if Snow and David would want her to was another consideration entirely, but they were doing better. Emma wanted them to be friends. Her child and Snow's would grow up nearly as siblings and that thought did not turn her stomach. In fact, part of her enjoyed the closeness. Pregnancy had been a very isolating thing. Everyone who knew was interested but protective; they kept their distance. Emma was her sterling self but Regina didn't know how to share joy.

No one was ever happy for her and now people were. Mulan and Ruby were kind, even friendly. Belle had made her overture of friendship and reconciliation even though Regina had kept her prisoner for so many years. Emma thought the baby would be a way in, something everyone would be happy about. Emma hadn't had an entire town doubting her position as Henry's mother, and maybe she didn't realise how heart wrenching that had been. Emma had her parents optimism, though it was tempered by enough realism to keep her from their idiocy.

She and Henry were alike that way. Would she be able to reach Henry today? How near were the merfolk to shore? Was he still happy? He was so young to have such freedom but what else could they do? Rumplestiltskin's help was out of the question. Emma's goddess, whomever she was, hadn't been able to help and Triton could only turn Henry human for short periods of time. Henry didn't even seem to want his legs back. Maybe it had all been too much for him, perhaps she'd pushed too hard. Perhaps one day, when he was older he'd despise magic less.

Perhaps Emma's optimism was wearing off on her in ways Regina wasn't sure she approved of.

Tugging her jacket a little closer, Regina moved carefully through the crowded Great Hall. The fairies and dwarves had been busy constructing homes, trying to fit everyone onto the neat grid of plumbing that Belle had developed so that they, like a Roman city far in the south, could have something a little better than cess pits. Not everyone wanted to live in a town, but their time in Storybrooke had brought them closer, no matter how much they loved to loathe her for it. From what she'd gathered second hand, because few dared speak to her, even with her wedded to their saviour, many wanted to remain in a town because they enjoyed being near each other.

There was enough talk of businesses beginning again, perhaps with more attention to detail and currency as they'd ever had before. They were going to put Snow on their golden coins, David on the silver coins and Emma on the smallest, the little coppers that will have swans on the back. She had seen that drawings and already threatened to wear one as a necklace so Emma would always be with her.

Not that she needed threats for that. Emma might be swamped with council and the preparations for running the kingdom during the day but her nights were Regina's. The baby turned, or swam, whatever it was she did that felt like bubbles beneath her flesh. Regina tried not to smile and failed utterly. She had no explanation when they stared at her and that sinking sensation of being trapped in a crowd like quicksand crept into her.

She'd never been one to flee, but if teleporting away wouldn't have made such a stir she would have used magic to be away from the eyes that never stopped following her. She couldn't smile, not like that in the middle of people. Regina tried to bury it, tried to summon the cold, imperious glare that made her people shy away.

It didn't work. Some of the servants, the youngest ones, were clearing the tables so they could be cleaned before lunch and Grace, little innocent Grace, who she'd taken from her father, smiled back at her as she slipped by with a bucket in her hands.

"Highness," Grace muttered, turning an awkward curtsy. The others followed, a whole horde of children sinking down before the former queen.

"Shoo!" Granny called, sending all of them scurrying back to work. Her hand closed on Regina's shoulder. "You'd think they just learned their manners yesterday from the way they act."

"Are they all servants?"

Granny led her away from the whispering crowd. Even in her plainest clothing, Regina stood out among the refugees still staying in the castle. Perhaps she stood wrongly, or they'd had too much time to know her as the Evil Queen.

"They're helpers. The castle needs many hands to keep everyone fed and cared for and there were many children who needed a bed."

Regina dragged Granny to a stop in the corridor down to the huge castle kitchens. "Where are their parents?"

"Building homes, tilling fields, tanning and smithing. You and the princess may be able to magic yourselves whatever you wish to wear, but the rest of us have to depend on our hands." Granny patted Regina's wrist, as if to soften her words. "Better they're all here, safe and warm than out in the woods scavenging."

"Shouldn't they be in school?"

Granny chuckled. "Perhaps. We're doing what we can. Archie teaches them some reading and writing, and Ruby and Mulan have a very popular set of classes on tracking, how to survive in the woods and self-defense. They learn some math in the kitchens."

"You seem pleased with that." The widow's smile made no sense. She had described a terrible, slapdash curriculum with a great grin on her face.

The skin around Granny's eyes crinkled and her smile grew. "These are the children of peasants and farmers dear, few of their parents could even read before the curse. Most of them would have learned the basics they needed for their trade and begun to work by now. They might be underfoot in my kitchen, but this is a childhood they would not have had in the old world. Maybe now things will be a bit better."

"All the children in the kingdom becoming drudges in the castle kitchen is better?"

Granny pulled her along, down the twisting stone stairs to the kitchens that fed the castle. Huge fires burned in great ovens along the walls, roasting carcasses turned on spits and on the counters in the middle, children kneaded bread dough nearly bigger than they were, laughing and tossing flour at each other.

Clearing her throat brought the flour tossing down to a minimum, mostly when Granny's back was to that particular child, and Granny circled the room, checking progress. There were a few others Regina recognised, Gertrude, from the bakery that had supplied Emma with those terrible bear claws, the butcher and his wife making sausages in the corner. If they knew her on sight, none of them dared cringe, and the baker even managed a small smile.

"We're making one of your favourites for dinner, perhaps you'd like to help?"

Several children, including Grave, dragged a huge barrel of apples out from the stores, pulling it in a wagon. Grace nodded and her half-smile nearly broke Regina's heart. She'd kept this girl from her father, used her as pawn to achieve what she wanted and she seemed determined to like her. Perhaps she'd never seen a princess before, or something about Regina's vulnerability yesterday had earned her the girl's pity.

Regina knew the scent of those spices. "You're making apple turnovers? For the castle?"

Rolling up her sleeves, Granny dunked her hands in a bucket of soapy water to wash them. "Your princess requested them, and we like to keep her happy."

"Emma."

"Her highness, yes," Granny finished, nodding her head just enough to be respectful of her future queen. "We try to give her what she asks for."

"Emma doesn't like turnovers, the queen and her husband hate apples, you'd need an army to even approach making that many by sunset-"

Granny clapped her hands and children assembled behind her, wiping their hands on their aprons and waiting for instructions. "I have an army, dear."

Their little faces looked up towards Regina, as if waiting for her to give them instructions. Their rosy cheeks threatened to break into smiles and none of them, not even the littlest girl, tried to hide behind Granny's skirts. When she'd rode through the villages as queen, all of the children had been hidden away and any she saw inevitably cringed and fled from her: their muddy, tight faces pale in fear.

No child in this kitchen was starved. None cringed as if expecting a beating. None of them tried to flee from her.

"Perhaps you'd like to help? My army could use another captain."

Emma hadn't even tried her turnovers in Storybrooke and considering what they had caused, it seemed the oddest of ideas. Granny and all the children stared at her, waiting for her to answer. Her request was genuine, and none of the children flinched at the idea of her joining them. Maybe they still thought of her as their mayor, reserved but kindly. Their parents must certainly remember the Evil Queen.

The strangeness of Emma's request forgotten, Regina nodded to Granny, dumbstruck when the children smiled at her as she agreed. They even seemed pleased for the assistance, swarming around her and Granny as they tried to organise their recipe. The older children, the ones who could be trusted with knives, were sent to chop the barrel of apples. Some of them were younger than Henry had been when she'd allowed him to use a small knife in the kitchen, but this was a different world. Some of them had undoubtedly had to defend flocks from foxes or themselves from goblins or ogres. Children their age had been taken to the ogres wars only a century ago.

They would not stoop to that. One reward thing of Snow's incipient goodness would be no child armies fighting the ogres. These children would have a chance to grow up being able to read, adding sums, perhaps some of them might have their own businesses, tailoring or coopering. Perhaps they'd even start work towards a fairer economy than the mess Regina had taken over after Leopold's death.

She talked some of the smaller children through how to stir properly and worked with Granny to make the giant balls of dough they'd need. Rolling all that dough flat was filled with more laughter than work, but a pleasantness hung in the air like the smell of spice. They'd had to trade diamonds to get cinnamon from the grasping traders, but the mines in the White kingdom were magical and diamonds meant magic to them, not wealth.

When the heat of the oven got to her, Regina removed her jacket and accepted one of the well-used rough aprons of the kitchen staff. Feeding a town was difficult work, and she hadn't appreciated how many people it took down in the kitchens when her meals came to her in her room. She'd worried about their supplies when she sat in the Great Hall, but Snow continued to insist that everyone should be fed together, at least until the houses had chimneys they could trust and the sewer systems could be relied on not to spread disease.

The curse's knowledge of microbes and bacteria had been a terrifying blessing when they'd had to confront the way they'd lived before. Raw sewage in the moat might keep invaders away, but it also invited plague that they no longer had the resources to treat.

She'd heard of fevers ravaging the villages near the mansion where she'd grown up. Sometimes only her mother dared go for supplies because all of the kitchen staff were afraid. Disease had been rare in her house, but the stories had always reached her. Picturing any of these excited children dying twisted her stomach enough to stir the baby, but at least here she didn't feel obligated to hide her smile. Regina's joy blended with everyone else's here, in this sanctuary from the kingdom upstairs.

Regina hadn't even noticed that her apron gave away the swell of her belly until she caught one of the younger girls smiling at her. She couldn't have been more than five and she needed a barrel beneath her feet just to reach the table where they rolled out the dough.

"What?" Regina asked.

"You're having a baby, like my mommy."

Regina doubted her experience had been much like that of the girl's mother, but she nodded.

"Yes."

"Are you happy?"

"Yes." The strength of the love welling within her nearly brought tears to her eyes. A thousand things were wrong: Henry was trapped, the ogres were massing outside the borders, Maleficent and the rest of the fairies, but she had Emma. Emma's baby turned and swam inside of her, stretching the confines of her universe.

"I'm very happy."

More through enthusiasm than culinary skill, the dough flattened beneath the rolling pin the girl rolled madly back and forth. Regina rescued the pastry before it could become goo.

"My mommy and daddy make bricks. Who's your baby's daddy?"

More children looked at her now, curious for her answer. If she said nothing, she'd obviously disappoint them. If she told the truth, would they tell their parents that the Evil Queen carried a child? How many of their children had she threatened? Killed?

She couldn't run. Her past needed to be answered for, and no matter how much Emma and Snow talked of forgiveness, neither of them really understood the vulnerability that required.

Swallowing her fear, she answered. "My baby has two mommies. Her mommy is Princess Emma."

That sunk in with whispers fluttering around the table. The child who'd asked continued to smile at her, flattening a new ball of dough into a blob rather than a circle.

"So your baby is a princess too!"

"Or a prince," one of the other children added.

Most of them seemed happy with that. Regina took trays of flattened pastry and brought them to Granny and some of the older children for filling.

"When you have magic, everything works a bit differently. I hear if you get enough of it and two men can have a baby." The children giggled at that, and one boy insisted it was true.

"Dwarf eggs all have two fathers. My Grandfather told me. And fairies have two mothers."

"Maybe Princess Emma is a fairy," a little girl said.

"She doesn't have wings, silly."

"Not all fairies have wings."

"Fairies are little."

"But they can be big. I've seem them be big."

Their argument moved to the logistics of fairies and left Regina's fading secret behind. She had nearly put it out of her mind when she heard something that made her forget everything else.

"I've seen fairies be big in the mine. I was helping my mom look for candles in the mine and we saw fairies. Big fairies, they were talking about diamonds."

"Big fairies, in a mine? That's ridiculous."

Regina turned the boy from his work. "You saw large fairies in the diamond mine? Human size fairies?"

The boy nodded, obviously happy someone believed him. "I saw lots. The Blue Fairy was there, and the Red, and some that were pink and yellow."

Tearing off her apron, Regina forced herself to wash her hands and move calmly.

"I have to go."

"Go?" Granny asked, flour and sugar adorning her face. "Have we tired you already?"

"There's something I need to check. I'm sorry. It has been nice baking with you."

"Come back anytime dear, we always need more hands."

One of the boys pretended to chop of his partner's hand and she mimed losing it up her wrist. She waved the stump at Regina.

"Always need more."

Laughter exploded around them, distracting all the children from their work as Granny tried to restore order. Regina put back on her jacket, pulling the lapels close as armour against the world. Fairies had no reason to be in the mine. She'd let Emma's accident slip from her mind. There was so much happening now, with Maleficent and Snow and David leaving the kingdom to Emma while they travelled. She'd forgotten the accident, how the mine had nearly taken Emma from her.

Fairies had been there. Fairies had no reason to be there. Their longstanding agreement with the dwarves was that the dwarves were solely responsible for the production of fairy dust because they were a tireless workforce that could be trusted with the most precious commodity.

Regina headed for the stable, then stopped herself. Would the stablehands say anything? She'd been riding with the queen yesterday and been allowed out without question but today she was alone. Retreating to a dark corner of the corridor, she pictured the mine entrance, calling it to mind from that painful memory of Emma's injuries and teleported herself there.

Calling fire to her hand for light, she walked into the dark entrance to the mine without seeing anyone. She could hear the dwarves, singing and talking to each other as they worked, for they loved working, but they were down the right tunnel. The left tunnel sat silent, winding away into darkness. That was the way. Magic not her own tugged at her, beckoning her down. Regina followed, watching the walls and strands of diamond gave way to true veins, cutting through the rock. Diamonds ran deep in Snow's kingdom, which brought them wealth and made the fairies powerful.

The light in her hand didn't reflect off the diamonds quite right in the walls of the cave. In fact, when she leaned close, she noticed that the diamond in the wall almost seemed to devour the light. She stroked the stone, expecting the gentle heat of magic within the fairy diamonds, but this was cold, cooler than the stone all around her. Regina continued, walking faster as the sensation of magic grew stronger and more insistent. Something was down here, just ahead, and it made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

Pickaxes were hard at work, but they weren't in dwarven hands. Fairies, human-sized fairies, with their wings absent or hidden, tore at the walls, dropping rough, black diamonds to the floor. Other fairies picked them up, collecting the black diamonds in a mine cart. Magic buzzed in the air, as insistent as a hive of wasps, yet no of the fairies used magic in their work. None of them smiled and unlike the dwarves, there were no songs in the air.

Regina doused her light, concentrated on the shape of a rat and took it, shrinking down into a furry rodent. As if surprised by the transformation, the baby moved within her, kicking out with foetal rat limbs. There was no way to warn her, or explain that everything was fine, they just needed to be less visible for awhile. She wasn't sure how much the baby understood, or even felt of the transformation. Perhaps it was the use of magic that had stirred her, yet the baby's kicking came with guilt.

She just needed to see what was happening: why were the fairies were taking the risk of mining themselves, why were they collecting black diamonds when she'd never heard of dark fairy dust. Maleficent's powers came from emotion and study, just as Regina's and her mother's did. There was some of a residual fairy aura around her and perhaps her fairy blood was what made the dragon come so easily to her, but this was different. Fairy dust usually gave her the kind of headache Henry called brainfreeze. Being around too much of it made her skull seem to contract around her brain.

This was warm in the back of her throat, like red pepper flakes. She'd never been around fairy magic that felt like this and as she scrambled along the floor of the mine on rat paws, Regina listened to the voices above. They were muted, dull, nothing like the vivacious fairies she'd always tried to avoid since her brief encounter with Tinkerbelle.

Their magic was waning, Regina learned, listening to the talk above. Some of the fairies couldn't even fly anymore and many had trouble unleashing their wings. Fairy dust from white diamonds wasn't giving them enough power so they would attempt the black. She didn't dare stay in any place too long, lest someone notice the rat, but she moved under their feet, watching and listening. Many of the fairies spoke in whispers about 'she', how they were planning to finally capture her.

Their opinions were as varied as the brilliant hues of their outfits. Some thought they shouldn't even engage with 'her', others wanted to capture her immediately and find out what 'she' knew that could help them. A few of the oldest fairies still thought 'she' had earned 'her' death and keeping 'her' alive was fallacy.

Slipping back towards the entrance to the tunnel, Regina kept herself hidden. Sitting behind a crate of black diamonds, she watched the blue orb of light float down before becoming the recognisable figure of the Blue Fairy. All the fairies working in the mine stopped, turning and bowing their heads in respect to their leader.

"I've discovered her weakness. The plan to capture her will proceed on the full moon, when our powers are strongest."

She wanted to stay, even though the fairies would eventually realise she was no common rat. When was the full moon? Still a few days away, she thought. Who were they after? What did they want?

Regina ran along the floor of the mine, just to the bend where she could risk turning back into her human form to teleport away.

"How will we breach her fortress?" One of the fairies asked.

"We'll make Maleficent come to us," Blue replied. "I know exactly what will lure her out."


End file.
